Fallen Stars
by Shockz
Summary: Harry Dresden would honestly have been happier if that Takamachi woman had never walked into his office and asked for his help. But, well, she did, and it's technically not her fault that they're BOTH running for their lives now...Rewrite of On The Run.
1. Chapter 1

I'm not making a lot of money these days. The monthly paycheck from the White Council keeps the bills paid, but only just. You'd think a job as dangerous as Warden...ing would be worthy of at least one more figure, but apparently the Council doesn't see things that way. And my other well of income has run bone-dry since Murphy got busted down to sergeant. So I'll take just about any job I can get right now.

And a young woman looking for a way to hide herself? Well, that's right up my alley, sure, come on in as soon as you can and we'll talk, yes, half an hour is just fine.

I'd like to say that if I had known what I was getting myself into, I wouldn't even have bothered picking up the phone. But that would be a blatant lie; I know myself well enough to know that I would have charged in head-on anyway. That's just who I am: Harry Dresden, professional wizard, private investigator, and—when a woman needs help—the last white knight.

Even if the woman in question can level a city block by blinking.

* * *

><p>I don't think of Murphy as looking like someone's kid sister any more. She's gotten a couple years too old for it—she'd probably kill me for saying so, but there you go. 'Someone's favorite aunt' fits her better these days. Which is good, because the old phrase was a perfect fit for the young woman who walked into my office precisely thirty minutes later. She was about five foot two, with the kind of body you get from knowing <em>exactly<em> how many calories you need every day—not excessively skinny, but definitely missing a little thickness in areas where it might have been interesting. She looked to be in her mid-twenties at the absolute oldest, and probably a couple years younger. Her face immediately bothered me, and it took me a moment to realize why: her reddish-brown hair and baby blue eyes said Irish or Scottish or something European, but every other feature on her face was definitely Asian. Her clothes made up for it, though—the jeans, the pink Hello Kitty T-shirt, and the White Sox cap made her just about as inconspicuous as you could get in Chicago.

And she was _tired_. That much I could tell from a quick glance—the shadows under her eyes, the long, slow blinks, the way she was carrying herself all made it obvious she hadn't had a good night's sleep in a while. She didn't speak immediately, but held up a hand as soon as I started to greet her. She pulled out a small necklace with a red jewel at the end from underneath her shirt, then mumbled something I couldn't hear clearly. I jumped a little as I felt a wave of energy pass through me and the rest of my office. This girl knew magic. She was In On It.

She looked up at me without meeting my eyes (yes, she was _definitely_In On It) and put on a slightly strained-looking smile. "Sorry; I had to make sure nobody was listening in. Harry Dresden, right?"

"That's what people keep calling me," I said, grinning. I offered my hand, and she shook it. "Nice to meet you, Miss...uh...I don't think I got your name on the phone?"

"Indeed you didn't. Call me...Alisa, for now." She wasn't giving up her Name easily, then. Good. It'd make things a hell of a lot easier if she knew what she was doing. "I'm going to cut to the chase here, Mr. Dresden. I need a way to hide myself as completely as possible from any magical search techniques. I know some magic, as you've probably guessed already, but this sort of thing is outside my experience. I'm told you're one of the best ma..._practitioners_ in America, and possibly the world; certainly, you're the best one I've been able to find whose services are for hire. I figure that if anyone can help me, you're the one."

Well, she was definitely pouring on the flattery; whoever she was, she really did need my help. "I see. Well, I'll give you some free advice: hiding like that would take a special ward, one that would be very closely linked to your home's threshold." A threshold was a home's magical boundary, and was often good for stopping all kinds of magic. Many beings had to be explicitly invited inside to pass it at all; even humans with magic power like wizards or White Court vampires had to get an invitation if they didn't want to leave all their power at the door. One could create a ward that would use that effect to absorb and dissipate the magic used by a tracking spell, like a stealth fighter absorbing a radar wave. But... "And even setting up that ward could be extremely hard, depending on how you're being tracked. Do you know what they would be using to track you? Your Name? A hair or a...clipping, maybe?"

She frowned. "Eh...I'm not completely sure about that. It would be best to assume they have anything and everything short of a street address, though."

I sighed. As much as I needed the money... "There's not a whole lot I can do for you, in that case. I know some wards that can jam one or two tracking spells at a time, but anything stronger would require a home with the kind of threshold you'd get from it being handed down through about five generations of family. Not to mention that this isn't something I could just do for you. The person trying to hide has to be the one who sets up the ward. I could show you how, but...you already said you aren't very experienced with that kind of magic. I can't guarantee how well it would work."

For a long moment, 'Alisa' didn't say anything. Then she looked up, desperation apparent on her face. "Look, I know how little chance this has of working. I really do. But I don't really need to hide forever. It'll be enough if there's something you can do, or show me how to do, that will buy me five or six hours. Do you think you can manage that, Mr. Dresden?"

I didn't need to guess what she'd use those five or six hours for; the shadows under her eyes told that story well enough. But there was something else that was bothering me. "Maybe," I said. "That depends on who, exactly, is trying to find you."

She chuckled a little. There wasn't much humor in it. "I guess it does, doesn't it? There was a...a bit of a misunderstanding with some people I work for. I thought it had all blown over, but, well, it hadn't, and things got a little bit ugly at a very awkward time for me."

"I think that may just be the most artfully vague non-answer anyone's ever given me," I said after a moment. I could probably have toned down the smartass just a bit, but since I was no longer convinced I was getting any money out of this woman... "I understand you've got secrets to keep, but if you want me to help you, you're going to have to give me a little more information." For all I knew, she could be an assassin the Red Court no longer needed or something.

'Alisa' didn't say anything for what felt like an eternity. Finally, slowly, she spoke. "These people...If they find me, I don't know what's going to happen to me. I...I've been framed for _murder_, Mr. Dresden. Not in a way that would let them send the local police after me, but...people I once thought were my allies are searching for me, and even my closest friends can't help me. Literally everything in my life has gone wrong, and all I'm asking you for is a chance to sleep for the first time in four days. _Please_, Mr. Dresden. Help me."

The rational part of my brain noted that she still hadn't actually told me anything, besides that she was supposedly framed for murder, which didn't do a whole lot to make her less suspicious.

The rational part of my brain is not the majority, however. The part that reacts to a pretty woman begging for my help with tears in her eyes, unfortunately, is.

* * *

><p>Motel 6 rooms do not have very strong thresholds. In point of fact, under normal circumstances, they don't have thresholds. Period. This is something that is obvious to anyone with the slightest bit of training in magic, but it bears repeating. Especially since what we were about to do depended primarily on such a threshold.<p>

"Just to make sure...'Alisa', you do know that a motel room doesn't count as your home for any serious magic, right?" I asked her as my old Volkswagen bug coughed to a stop in the motel's parking lot.

"Even if it's paid for for six months?"

I blinked. How much money did this woman have? She'd already paid me up front, _in__cash_. "I...Well. Yeah, I guess that might do it. Your threshold is still going to be flimsier than soggy Kleenex until you've lived here for a while, though."

"That's okay. Like I said, I only need to buy time."

"You'd be lucky to buy an hour or two under these circumstances."

"Mr. Dresden, I don't have a lot of options at this point. The least I can do is try."

The motel room was pristine: bed made, stationery in place, TV cabinet closed, etc., etc. There was a duffel bag in the corner with some wrinkled clothes poking out, but otherwise there was no evidence the room had even been used. Surprisingly enough, there _was_ a threshold, albeit a barely noticeable one.

Once inside, 'Alisa' shut the door and looked expectantly at me. "Okay. How do we do this?"

"Well, the first thing we need to do is create a circle that encompasses as much of the room as possible. Normally I'd use chalk, but that doesn't really work on carpeting; not to mention we might have to move some furniture around—"

"Don't worry. I have that covered." She grasped the red jewel on her necklace, whispered something, and suddenly a perfect circle of pink light traced itself out on the floor, touching three of the four walls of the motel room.

"That's...convenient. How'd you do that?" Light-based thaumaturgic circles could solve so many of my problems, and—from what little I'd read—had been suggested more than a few times over the years, but as far as I knew had never been done successfully.

"Photon capture, preservation and vector alteration via Elsen-Betko mana fields."

"Ah. Right. Of course." I did not understand a single word of that. I'd have to ask her to explain later.

I walked her through the process of creating the hiding ward. A lot of wards were simply evocation spells with delayed activation—something that would set an intruder on fire if they opened a door, for example. This one was far more complex—it was actually a form of containment circle that would, theoretically, prevent the eldritch energy connecting 'Alisa' to whatever they were using to track her from either entering or leaving the room. It was a pretty tough thing to accomplish, even for me, but 'Alisa' was a startlingly fast learner.

It was just before she finished putting a copy of the circle on the third wall—the ward had to be on each wall, the floor, and the ceiling to be effective—that we realized we were too late. I felt a wave of magic pass through the whole room, wrecking the precisely constructed circle 'Alisa' was putting the finishing touches on. It passed just as quickly as it came, but was replaced by something more disturbing yet: an unearthly, rainbow-colored glow coming through the blinds.

I had no idea what that could be. It was, however, almost certainly trouble, and most likely trouble coming for either me or the mysterious woman with me. I spun towards the door, readied my staff—

And the world went white.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a flashbang, or something like it. How they managed that effect without actually throwing anything into the room, I have no idea. Maybe they made the door itself explode.

Now, a flashbang doesn't just work by blinding you and deafening you, although it certainly does that (and hurts like hell, too). The _bang_ part is strong enough to actually throw off your equilibrium, making it difficult to stand up straight, let alone defend yourself. I reflexively triggered my shield bracelet even as I felt myself fall to the floor, dropping my staff in the process, and was rewarded by feeling it heat up within a fraction of a second as _something _impacted the barrier it formed. Still blind and deaf from the burst, I pointed my hand in the general direction of where it had come from and triggered one of my rings.

Those rings store up little bits of energy every time I move my arm, and can release it on demand as a burst of telekinetic force that hits like...well, I can't say I know for sure what it hits like, since I've never been on the receiving end of it, but from its effects I'd say that it hits like something very large and heavy indeed. I used to have just one of these rings. Now I have one on each finger of my right hand, each with enough capacity to fire three times. So, I can aim at someone I don't like and hit them with the force of up to _fifteen_ very large and heavy things.

I think it worked, because my shield took a moment to cool down before the whatever-the-attack-was resumed. In the meantime, my eyes had recovered enough to display vague white blobs and black blobs, which was of no help whatsoever. As a result, I had no idea _what_ exactly passed right by me in what I thought was the direction of the door, except that it was magic and that there was a hell of a lot of it. Then someone grabbed my hand and pulled me up...and up...and up...was that wind?

My vision was finally clearing up, but it took me a while to realize it due to the fact that there was nothing but the pitch-black night sky overhead. I looked over towards my hand, currently in the firm grasp of someone or other, and wait what?

It took me a second to realize it was 'Alisa', due to the fact that she had apparently changed clothes in the half a minute or so since I had last looked at her. The pink T-shirt and jeans had been replaced by a long white dress with blue trim, a matching white jacket, and metallic blue gauntlets over her wrists. Pinkish wings of light extended from the ankles of her white-and-blue boots. She was holding something long and thin in her other hand, but I couldn't see what.

I'm going to be totally frank here. She looked like she had just leaped off the cover of one of those Japanese comics that have been infesting nearly every bookstore I go to lately. And not the interesting-looking ones; I mean the ones that are covered in hearts and stars and usually start with the words "Magic Girl" or "Pretty Soldier" or something. Combined with the grim, determined expression on her face, the overall effect was of someone who definitely wanted to look dangerous and be taken seriously, but hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. I guess that opinion showed on my face, because she looked over at me, frowned, and said, "What? The outfit?"

"...Well, yeah. I mean, it's kind of...you know...odd," I said, phrasing it as delicately as I could.

She chuckled. "Don't knock it until you've seen what it can do. Don't look down, by the way."

"Don't look—stars and freaking _stones_!" I probably should have already figured out that we were airborne, but to a guy who's only been in an airplane a few times (and had sworn off ever doing it again), I guess the signs didn't really register. We were, in fact, quite far above the ground. And moving very quickly. "We're flying. You're flying! How are you _flying_?"

Human wizards don't generally do flying. If you were to attempt it, in theory, it would take ridiculously tight force control, and the results if you screwed it up would range from "highly embarrassing" to "spectacularly fatal". Given the accelerations involved, you could very easily manage to reduce yourself to chunky salsa even _without_ crashing—and many had. It's usually just not worth the effort for most wizards, and even those few who have mastered it (none of whom I'd ever met) tend to take it nice and easy.

Unless, apparently, you're a woman going by the name of 'Alisa', in which case you can not only launch yourself off the ground and accelerate to cruising speed in seconds without feeling so much as a whisper of force, but carry a passenger along with you. By one arm. Without yanking said arm out of its socket.

"Skill, " she responded absently. "It's mostly a matter of using one force spell to counteract gravity, and another one for actual motion. Well, that's the basics, anyway, before you get to the parts about cushioning and aerodynamics... "

I just sort of gaped at her. I was hallucinating. I had to be. She was not flying, and she did not just talk about juggling two to four simultaneous, precise, and continuous force spells in order to do so like it was the most normal thing in the world. This. Was. Not. Happening. "You're...you're kidding, right? You know human beings can't actually do that?"

"_Most_ human beings can't. I'm not most human beings, as much as I like to pretend otherwise." Her expression grew thoughtful. "Neither are you, from what I've seen. Eh? Hang on a second." She seemed to have noticed something I didn't, because she slowed down and turned to face where we had come from. As she did, she readied the object she held in her other hand, and I finally got a good look at what it was.

It was a four foot long metal staff, painted white and pink, and tipped with a broken circle of gold surrounding a larger version of the red jewel I had seen on her necklace. The Japanese comic-book comparison came back to mind with a vengeance, but just like the person holding it, it was very clear that this thing meant business in spite of its absurdity.

The exhaust vents might have had something to do with that. Or perhaps it was the odd protrusion that happened to look just like an assault rifle magazine.

The jewel in the center of the staff flashed, and a complex circle of light like the ones she had used in the ward traced itself out beneath her feet. She narrowed her eyes, and I followed her gaze to a point of blue light way off in the distance. (Just how far had we gone, anyway? We were far, far out over Lake Michigan by now.)

"_Axel__ Shoot_", I heard her mutter, and four spheres of light appeared around her, hovered for an instant, then blasted off towards the distant speck as she swung her staff in that direction. Then her eyes widened, and she raised her staff, summoning yet another circle in front of us—

Just in time for a six-inch-wide line of blue light to scythe across the sky, barely ten feet away, then readjust itself to hit dead center in the middle of the new circle. A high-pitched half-sizzle half-whine came from the point of impact, and I triggered my shield bracelet immediately, but the laser (since that's what it obviously was) didn't penetrate through. I saw 'Alisa' grit her teeth, obviously putting some effort into maintaining her shield (since that's what _that_ obviously was), until the laser winked out. She held the shield for a moment longer, then nodded and released it, followed by the circle beneath her. Finally, she turned and resumed flight.

"What was _that_?" I asked.

"They had another flier after us. Normally I'd be able to outrun him, but...well. Had to take care of him."

"Take...care of him?" There was 'extremely suspicious' and then there was 'outright warlock', and I did not want to be dealing with the latter. Especially if she was this powerful.

"He's not dead, if that's what you're thinking. Impact should've just stunned him long enough to knock him out of the air, and his barrier jacket will protect him when he hits the ground."

"You _know_ that? Beyond a shadow of a doubt?"

She glared at me. "Yes, I know that. I hit my trainees nearly that hard. Harder, if I know they're good with shields. He'll be out for an hour at most."

"Trainees?" This woman was _teaching_ people? Where? _How_?

"Yes, trainees. I'm a combat instructor." She paused for a moment, leaving me to try to process that statement. She _could_ be just a small-time independent teacher, but the way she was phrasing it implied she was training people for an organization. An organization that I'd never heard of, with magical practitioners whose abilities were beyond anything I'd ever seen serving as _instructors_. If I actually believed any of this was happening, I wouldn't have liked it at all. "By the way," she continued, "that was a pretty neat trick you pulled back at the motel. Wind magic?"

"Just direct force projection," I said, glad to have something to discuss besides the things that were absolutely not happening right now. "Better than wind for brute power."

"A man after my own heart," she said, grinning. "We're not being followed, so any other fliers they might have had are probably out for the count." She was talking about it again. _La__ la __la__ I__ can__'__t __hear__ you__._ "I think the one you nailed was one of them."

"It was mostly dumb luck," I confessed. "The flashbang got me, and I just aimed at where I thought it came from."

"Dumb luck nothing. You had an active shield up before you hit the ground. You had a backup ready in case you lost your Dev—your, what's the word they use here, your focus. If half the mages I know thought like you, _I__'__d_ be the one scared of _them_."

People were scared of her, then. That made sense; I was one of them. Wait a minute. "Mages?" I asked. "I don't think I've ever heard that term before." Outside of an RPG, anyway.

"It's a local thing. You've probably guessed I'm not from around here by now."

I had guessed no such thing—I was too busy denying that any of this was happening to speculate like that—but if she was in a mood to reveal some information... "It crossed my mind," I said. "Though that depends on what you mean by 'around here'."

"Earth," she said, and once again my mental processes came to a screeching halt.

"You mean...you live in the Nevernever?" There were always rumors of humans who had managed to survive the Nevernever for extended periods of time, or even live there indefinitely, but they were just that: rumors. If—

"No, no, " she said, laughing. "Much farther than that."

"Farther than the Nevernever? Then...what, you're from heaven? Hell?" She didn't look much like my idea of an angel, and even less like a demon, though one can't count on appearance much when it comes to those kinds of things. A shiver went down my spine as a different idea presented itself. "_Outside__?_"

She rolled her eyes. "Now you're _too_ far. Think somewhere in the middle."

I thought about it. Then I thought about it some more, as we flew over the inky blackness of Lake Michigan, on a twisting path that only made sense to the woman holding me aloft. A woman with more magical talent than I had ever seen, wielding a weapon that looked built out of higher technology than any respectable wizard had any business using, and hinting that she worked, or at least used to work, for a much larger organization with significant assets, financial and otherwise. On the run from said organization, which had no problem barging into a random Chicago motel on their own instead of working with the local authorities. And then, like a little lightbulb going on in my head, it suddenly made sense. _Everything_ made sense, in a way I'd rather it didn't. "Oh. Oh, _shit_. You've got to be kidding me," I said aloud.

She smiled sheepishly. "I come in peace; take me to your leader?"

Oh. I was about to say 'time traveler'.

* * *

><p>Remember how I said wizards don't do flying? Wizards <em>definitely<em> don't do space.

It's not as if we missed the moon landings or something. It's just that the methods of magic aren't particularly conducive to leaving Earth's atmosphere—although I suppose a sufficiently talented wind user could pull it off—and we have a nasty tendency to wreck the kind of technology that could do so. And even if that wasn't the case, there's a severe lack of _will_ to do that kind of thing—most wizards with the kind of power and ambition necessary are too busy either politicking on the White Council or shut up in their labs, trying to invent a spell that can cure erectile dysfunction _and_ cook waffles for breakfast. (And that's during the normal times. Right now, there's the little matter of _war__ with __the __Red __Court_ to worry about.) Oh, there's a few adventurous types, make no mistake, but they already have an dangerous, unexplored frontier that's much easier to get to. And when they inevitably get eaten by something in the Nevernever, well, others learn from their example.

And speaking of the Nevernever itself, it doesn't get you further than the moon. Period. It's huge, bigger than Earth by our best guesses, but it's not infinite. It doesn't really end, though, just sort of curves in on itself. Some of the more scientifically minded among the White Council think it's a hypersphere, whatever that is.

The point I'm trying to make is that wizards are very much earthbound, as are the majority of the things we deal with. Vampires, faeries, and demons we can work with.

Martians? Not so much.

* * *

><p>"An alien. Hell's bells, you're saying you're an alien."<p>

"Well, sort of. I was born in Japan, and I still have family there. But I've spent the majority of my life away from Earth, and I'm a citizen of a foreign planet, so I suppose I am. In the legal sense, if nothing else."

"...Well, no wonder you were giving me an alias; your real name is probably Vorbleep Glorag or something."

She glared at me. "My _perfectly __ordinary __Japanese __name_ is Nanoha Takamachi."

Damn. Vorbleep Glorag would've been easier to pronounce. "All right, then, 'Nanha'—".

"Na_no_ha."

"Nanooooha." I stretched the vowel out just to annoy her. "So you're an alien wizard, or mage, whatever the word is you want to use, on the run from a whole bunch of other alien mages, and now they're maybe an hour, at most, from running you down and forcing you into a head-on fight, which you don't think you can win. After which, they'll...? What, kill you?"

"I don't think so. We don't use lethal force, ever, not if we have any choice about it. I think they still want to bring me in." She closed her eyes. "I think."

_We_. That was interesting. She still considered herself one of these people. "Fair enough. What's the plan now, then?"

She glided to a stop, then summoned another circle in mid-air and landed on it. It seemed solid enough, despite being worryingly transparent, so I very slowly released the death grip I had on her hand and sat down on it. "I... I'm not sure yet. I can guarantee that I can outfly anyone on the squad we just escaped from, but I can't keep going forever. I have a backup plan...not one I wanted to use, but I'm out of options at this point...I need to find someplace that will get me about twenty, thirty minutes. And they're already close, so it'd have to be somewhere defensible this time, instead of just a hiding place."

There was an awkward silence for a moment. There weren't that many 'defensible' places that would both stand up to these people and welcome her in, unannounced. If it was demons or something like that, St. Mary of the Angels might have done the trick, but these people were apparently just that—_people_. A church wouldn't do much to stop them if they wanted her badly enough.

There was one other place I knew about, of course. A place that was very nearly underground, protected by a heavy steel security door, and had a halfway decent threshold powering enough defensive wards to discourage a small army. I had no illusions about it keeping them out forever, but it might buy Nanoha her thirty minutes. "My apartment," I said, regretting every syllable.

Nanoha's eyes widened. "No, I couldn't possibly impose—there's no need for you to involve yourself further—"

"I'm already involved, " I said, ignoring the annoying little voice that kept saying _Danger__, __Harry __Dresden__! __Danger__!_ "You got me involved the moment you walked into my office, with these people so hot on your tail. They've probably already searched the office; for all I know, they're already staking out the apartment, and in that case I'd prefer someone who knows what they can do had my back. So. Once we're in there, what _is_ the plan?"

She sighed. Whether it was a sigh of relief or regret, I can't say. "I set up and cast a teleport spell to get us out of here."

"You can...never mind, of course you can teleport." Why even bother being surprised by anything at this point? It was probably just a faster way of using the Nevernever as a shortcut. "How will that help? Won't they just pick up your trail again?"

"As far as I can tell, teleporting disrupts traditional tracking spells. They can trace the destination of the teleport, but it takes some time to do so, much longer than normal tracking would."

"Then why haven't you just kept teleporting? Seems like it would throw them off your trail in a hurry."

"Teleporting takes a lot of energy, and energy is something that's in short supply for me right now. I've got maybe one more in me, and even that will be pushing it. Not to mention that...due to certain circumstances, it'll take much longer than normal for me to feed enough energy to the spell. Especially if I'm taking someone along with me."

"Who would you...oh. Me." Having a bunch of alien wizards barging into my house and collecting evidence that I was assisting a fugitive (not to mention Touching My Stuff) wasn't exactly something I wanted, but being present and available to answer questions when they accomplished said barging was even less preferable. "Then hell, what are we waiting for?" I gave her the address; she glanced down at her staff, nodded, took my hand, and once more flew off into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Nanoha took us down about half a mile from my apartment; the final stage of the descent involved an extremely disturbing few seconds in free fall and a very brief force spell at the end to cushion our landing. "Faster and more stealthy than a standard landing," she had explained. "Like a HALO jump, but with magic." As soon as she hit the ground, she mumbled a spell to her staff, then concentrated for about a minute. She opened her eyes and nodded. "All clear." With a pulse of cherry blossom-colored light, her battle-dress and staff disappeared, leaving only the T-shirt and jeans she was wearing when she had first walked into my office.

We covered the remaining distance on foot, during what must have been the most paranoid few minutes of my life. Every second seemed like it would be the last before some flying überwizard dropped out of the sky and blew me up by twitching an eyelid, but it looked like I had been too paranoid. Perhaps they hadn't been able to follow her trail to my office, or perhaps they hadn't been able to find my home address anywhere in that office. Either way, the street was mercifully clear of all but a few people.

Nanoha seemed to be fine most of the way there, but she stumbled on the steps leading down to the apartment. "S-sorry," she said as I helped her up. "It's—I'm fine. Let's just get inside." It was a lie, and we both knew it. There was a reason she'd been willing to go so far just to get a few hours of sleep. I don't know what she was doing to keep herself on her feet—or hell, _sane__—_but it was obvious she couldn't keep it up much longer. I really, really hoped she had a hell of a destination in mind for this last teleport.

"I think so," she said when I asked her while I started disarming the defense wards on the door. "My family—they're in on everything. Earth's supernatural stuff, plus lots of what I've been up to offworld. And they, well, we have resources. At least, I think we do. Papa was never really too clear about that." She frowned. "But! The point is, they can defend—we can defend each other, at least until I'm in good enough shape to get us somewhere else."  
>It sounded shaky to me. It sounded <em>really<em> shaky. The fact that she was even considering something so very shaky said a lot about how desperate she really was at the moment.

But it's not like I had a better plan. And no, little voice in my head, leaving her to the wolves is not a better plan, not when said wolves might well decide you're worthy of A) killing or B) dragging off to Zorpling Prime and throwing in Zorpling Prime Correctional Facility just for being seen with her. And besides, _chivalry_, dammit. It's no more dead than polka.

* * *

><p>When I finally disarmed the wards and unstuck the door, we were immediately greeted by Mister, my dog-sized cat, and Mouse, my dinosaur-sized dog. Both of them were immediately suspicious of the newcomer, though Mister lost interest pretty quickly.<p>

Mouse, however, gave a low, rumbling growl as soon as he saw Nanoha. "Easy, Mouse," I said. "She's okay. I think." The growl subsided, but he still kept a wary eye on her.

Nanoha raised an eyebrow. "Big dog."

"I think he may actually be a dwarf woolly mammoth."

She chuckled and petted him. "Whosa good boy? Is you a good boy? You're a good boy!" It seemed to calm Mouse down a _little_, but his eyes still didn't move from her.

"Okay, then," I said. "So how do we—"

"_Harry__, __is__ that __you__?_" called a voice from downstairs.

Uh-oh. My apprentice was here. Now that I thought about it, I remembered that I had planned to meet her for lessons tonight; it had slipped to the back of my mind, though. What with the little thing about space wizards and all. "Uh, yeah, Molly, uh—"

"_Awesome__! __Hey__, __there __was __something __I __wanted __to__ ask__ you __about __potions__!_" Her voice became clearer; she was coming up the ladder from the subbasement. "You know how you have the depleted uranium down there? Well, I—" As the trap door leading to the basement opened and Molly Carpenter's over-pierced face and ever-polychromatic hair (half aquamarine, half fuschia today!) cleared the floor, she got very, very quiet. "Oh. Hello, there. Don't believe we've met." She put on the most horrifically forced smile I have ever seen as she climbed off the ladder. I will have nightmares about that smile _forever__._

"Uh," I said. "Ms. Takamachi, this is Molly Carpenter, my—."

Nanoha was all business. "Hello. Nanoha Takamachi. I'm your boyfriend's client; no, I'm not sleeping with him, and we are very pressed for time right now. More so now that I know you're here." She turned to face me. "I suppose I'm going to have to take the dog, the cat, _and_ the girl along with you."

"She's my apprentice, not my girlfriend," I replied. "And it was your idea to take me along in the first place. Though Mister"—I jerked a thumb at the cat in question, who was now considering his food dish thoughtfully—"can probably take care of himself." So could Mouse, obviously, but I'd rather have him with me.

"I never said it wasn't. Can't leave you here, can't leave her here, and I suspect you don't want me leaving the pets here."

"Harry, _what __is __going __on_?" Molly was giving me a glare that reminded me of her mother in the most terrifying way possible.

I tried to come up with a way to phrase the explanation that wouldn't cause her to immediately jump to conclusions about hallucinogenic substances. Eventually, I decided on vagueness.

"Ms. Takamachi here hired me, and in doing so got me—and now you—in a hell of a lot of trouble. She is also, at the moment, the only person who can get us even temporarily _out_ of this trouble. So we're going to do whatever she says and hope that our collective intellects can use the extra time to figure a way out of this mess."

"Uh-_huh_. No sale."

"Look, we really don't have time to be arguing about this. Mr. Dresden. Where's a good place to set up a circle big enough to fit all of us?"

"Subbasement," I said. "Where she just came from."

"Right." She jumped through the trapdoor. "It should be ten minutes or so," she said from down below. "I'll let you know when you two need to get inside. Pack a change of clothes if you get the chance."

Which left me alone with Molly.

"Okay, boss. Chance number two. What. Is. Going. On."

I sighed. Normally I was pretty reluctant to share details with my apprentice, given that being In The Know on certain supernatural subjects was dangerous in and of itself—even if you weren't as hotheaded as she had proven herself to be. But this was something we were _both_ largely in the dark about, and somehow I doubted Molly's expertise with veils would do much to protect her against the largely-unquantified Pursuers. She deserved to know a little more about why she was being dragged along with this. "She's right; we don't have time for this. But...she hired me to help her hide from the organization she used to work for, who she claims have framed her for murder. But they were hotter on her tail than she thought, and now they're most likely on their way here. And so, I'm apparently supposed to hold them off while she prepares a spell that will both teleport us to a safehouse and disrupt whatever method her pursuers are using to track her."

"Okay. That's a dumb plan, but okay. But why'd you bring her here? To your _home_?"

"Well...she needs a few minutes to do the teleport spell—"

"And you can rip open a Way to the Nevernever in a second or two."

"Which wouldn't do anything to help her, since the tracking would light her back up as soon as we crossed back over." At least, that's what she said.

"Wait, this woman has thrown this kind of wrench into your life just in the last few hours, and you're still trying to _help_her?"

"Well...she needs help. And she paid cash. Up front."

"I'm not sure whether the mercenary part or the chivalrous part of that is more pathetic."

"It's more than that, though. She's _different_. She doesn't use magic the way we do. And...she's told me some things..." I hesitated, thinking about what she had told me, and I realized something. I'd been thinking of this in personal terms, about saving this one woman, and maybe preventing myself from being a victim of an alien abduction. But it went so much farther than that. This was _first__ contact_, sort of. This was the first encounter between a representative of the White Council and an actual extraterrestrial race, with the expected technology (and not-so-expected magic) far beyond our own. The beginnings of a long-term plan began to form in my head. Shocking, I know. "Things I need to know more about. Things the White Council needs to know. If we can buy her a few hours, I need to see about getting her under Council protection. If that will do any good."

"Do any...Harry. This is _big_, isn't it?"

"Bigger than SplatterCon. Bigger than the thing with the White Court. This is _huge_, Molly. Change-the-face-of-the-world-forever huge. I don't want to tell you all of it yet, in case things go wrong—" If only Nanoha had been so courteous to me. "—But for now, I need you to—"

A faint sizzling noise from the entrance to the apartment interrupted me. Then the door glowed brightly for a moment...before abruptly fading, accompanied by a loud _wham_.

Uh-oh.

* * *

><p>I am actually quite proud of the wards on my apartment, specifically the ones protecting the front door. The biggest and most useful one was a multilayered lightning spell set to trigger when someone partially succeeded in forcing the heavy steel security door open, and then reload and fire again in case the intruders were <em>very<em> persistent. Originally, it only had enough charge to fire four or five times, and it got weaker with each shot. A horde of zombies had shown the flaw in _that_ design, and so it got an upgrade. It would now fire at least six times, each with precisely the same yield. It took a lot out of me to charge it up the first time, but I was pretty damn confident it would fry—or at least discourage—just about anything I could think of.

Of course, now it was going up against things I hadn't thought of. Which is why I was counting on my other defensive ward—one that would have no effect against mundane means of opening the door, but would absorb the energy of any spell used on the door and reflect it back on the caster as raw force.

It would last longer than the lightning, but still required a bit of energy on its own to maintain; it would dissipate after reflecting maybe eight or nine spells. Well. Seven or eight, now.

"Molly," I said. "Forget packing or anything. Get down to the basement and see if Ms. Takamachi can use any help. No, wait." I racked my brains for anything I absolutely needed to take with me; two came to mind. I ran over to the door and grabbed an innocuous-looking cane from the popcorn tin which usually held my staff, snow shovel, and other assorted items. "Catch." I tossed it to her; she caught it expertly. "Take this, and grab the skull on the shelf in the lab with all the romance novels. Make absolutely sure both of these get taken with us." Losing Bob would be very bad; losing _Fidelacchius_ would be much, much worse.

She looked confused, but nodded. "Right." She started climbing back down the ladder.

"Nanoha!" I called down. "How much longer?"

"_Five __minutes__, __maybe__! __Spell__'__s__ almost __done__, __but __it __needs __more__ power__!_"

A loud crack-sizzle sounded from the door; the lightning ward had fired. I could hear indistinct yelling from outside, but it didn't sound like they were planning on packing up and leaving anytime soon. I gritted my teeth and readied my staff and blasting rod. Mouse stood at my side, growling at the door.

There was only one more _wham_ from the reflector spell. I could still hear yells, but they were shouts of soldiers giving and receiving orders, not the panicked cries of people dealing with a sudden and very violent surprise.

Then something struck me. What if they weren't planning to power through the wards? What if— "Nanoha! Do your people have a way of, I don't know, force-disabling wards?"  
>"<em>I<em>_ think __so__! __Yeah__, __they__'__ve __probably __got __a __wardcracker__!_"

Well. Shit. "That would have been good to know earlier! How much longer now?"

"_Four__, __maybe __three __minutes__! __The__ calculations__ for __the __spell __are __done__, __but __there__'__s__ still __not__ enough __energy __in __it__!_"

"I don't think we have three minutes!"

There was a pause. Then: _"__I__ know__! __Here__! __Catch__!_" A split second later, her jewel necklace floated up out of the trapdoor and towards me. _"__Just __touch __it__; __it__'__ll __tell__ you __everything __you __need__ to __know__!_"

I hesitated, having had all too much experience with magical artifacts that could "tell you everything you needed to know" if you touched them. But from what I'd seen, I'd eat my own hat if Nanoha was anything like a Denarian. If I had a hat, anyway. After a moment, I reached out and grabbed the hovering jewel.

* * *

><p>"<em>Hello<em>_, __Guest__ User__." _The feminine voice in my head was calm, flat, almost robotic. Not like the last feminine voice in my head, who could recite the dictionary and make it sound seductive. Hell's bells, my life is weird. "_This__ unit__'__s __name__ is __Raising __Heart __Exelion__. __I __am__ a __Mid__-__Childan__ type __Intelligent __Device__, __optimized __for__ combat__ using __force__-__type __magic__. __My __Master__ has __enabled __Guest __User __Mode__, __with__ instructions __to __provide__ whatever __assistance __is __possible__ to __you__. __Do __you __wish __to __take __temporary __control __of __this __unit__?"_

I didn't understand a single word of that. Except the part about "optimized for combat using force-type magic," which was something that sounded very helpful indeed. Not that I expected to get much use out of someone else's focus, but..._Oh__, __hell__. __Why__ not__?_

"_All__ right__, __Guest __User__. __Activation __phrase__ is__ '__Raising __Heart__: __Set__up__'. __Please __speak __activation __phrase__ aloud__ to __verify __conscious__ decision__."_

Oh god. I was in one of those comics. I was the magical girl. I grimaced, did my best to quash the mental image of me wearing Nanoha's battle-dress, and whispered, "Raising Heart. Set up."

And then a whole lot of things happened at once.

"_All__ right__, __Guest__ User__. __Existing __Barrier __Jacket__ detected__. __Integrating__. __Reinforcing__. __Multiple __existing __Storage __Devices__ detected__. __Integrating__. __Device __Mode__ unnecessary__; __existing __Storage __Devices __sufficient __for __targeting __purposes__. __Mental__ link__ established__."_

At that last one, a whole bunch of things popped into my field of vision, overlaying what my eyes saw. It was some kind of heads-up display, like the scene in _Terminator_ where you see what it looks like from Arnie's point of view. A human silhouette in the corner showed all green. Looking at my force rings showed how many charges remained on each one, and a percentage showed how how close each charge was to being replenished. A temperature readout hovered over my shield bracelet, currently showing it at room temperature.

The voice continued. "_Translation __matrices __active__. __Scanning__ Linker __Core__. __Optimizing__ mana__ conversion __matrices__; __full __optimization __under __current __settings __may __take __some__ time__. __Hostiles __detected__. __Acquiring __target __data__." _Red wireframes in the shapes of human bodies appeared, overlaid on the front wall in such a way that it was clear they represented people on the other side of it. One was on one knee directly in front of the door; the others were well clear. "_Analyzing__ tactical__ options__. __Local__ defenses__ have__ been __compromised__. __Hostiles __are __preparing __explosive__ stun__ spell __on __primary __entrance__. __Tactical __options __recommended__: __Offensive__—__Interrupt __stun __spell__, __take __hostiles __by __surprise__. __Defensive__—__Use__ shield __to __neutralize__ effects __of __stun __spell__, __use __narrow__ entryway __and__ linear__ nature__ of__ offensive __force__-__projection __spells __to __advantage__."_

And that whole spiel only took about three seconds. This thing was slowing down my perception of time somehow, just like Lash had done not so long ago. _Defensive_, I thought, and immediately wireframe projections popped into my field of view—one a rough sphere centered on my shield bracelet, one a cylindrical arrow emanating from my staff. I imagined narrowing the width and increasing the power of a force spell, and the arrow changed to match. Cool.

"_Warning_," the voice added, "_stun__ spell __imminent__. __Recommend__ immediate__ barrier __deployment_." I focused my will through the shield bracelet, and the usual half-sphere of shifting blue light appeared—accompanied, however, by an instantaneously formed circle of blue-white light like the ones I had seen Nanoha use.

Normally, my shield bracelet couldn't block visible light. Quite intentionally; having it block my field of vision couldn't possibly work to my advantage in battle. Well, maybe this freakish bit of alien magic-technology could fix that.

"_It__ can __be __done__, __Guest__ User_. _Hostile __stun __spell__ activating_." With that, the door exploded into blinding white light and sound—but light and sound that failed to penetrate my shield; it was more of a flicker-pop than a flash-bang. The red wireframes began to rush into the newly clear doorway—until I envisioned a path just about the width of said doorway and bellowed _"__Forzare__!"_

_Forzare_, the robotic voice echoed, and a torrent of power—exactly the way I had envisioned it—rushed through the door and slammed into the intruders beyond, accompanied by a flash of blue-white light. All put up the vertical circles that their magic system seemed to use as shields, but all but two of those shields flickered and then dissipated under the assault, sending the unfortunate targets flying up the staircase and beyond.

The two remaining soldiers—and they were soldiers, that much was certain from the uniform grey body armor and helmets—both attacked at once. "_Light __Lance_," one cried, aiming a roughly rifle-shaped device at me, while the other yelled "_Assault__ Pulse__!_"

The "Light Lance" hit first; it was the blue laser Nanoha had intercepted while we were out over Lake Michigan. It hit with roughly the same effect: a high-pitched whine/sizzle that grated at my ears. The other attack was more interesting: it was a force spell, but instead of a single big blast like I favored, it was a succession of almost bullet-like pulses that _spang_ed off my shield.

My shield bracelet barely even warmed up. _Nice_. I raised my blasting rod, imagined a narrow line of pure heat like I'd seen Luccio use a few times, and calmly said _"__Fuego_."

This time, there was a brief pause before the voice echoed me, and when the spell did activate, it was more my normal column of flame than the heat-laser I had envisioned. It was narrow enough to avoid igniting the doorframe, but not by much, and it ended up bouncing harmlessly off the goons' shields. "_Warning__, __Guest __User__. __This__ unit __is__ not__ designed__ for __thermal __magic__. __Full__ optimization __will __take__ some __time__,_" the voice said.

Okay, then. Fire didn't work as well as force with this thing. That was okay. Force is plenty on its own.

Or maybe not. While the two standing goons continued to alternate between incrementally wearing down my shield and diving back behind cover as I threw more force blasts at them, the remaining four had apparently recovered from being blasted across the street and were now adding their own attacks to the mix. And my shield bracelet was now slowly-but-noticeably heating up. As if in response to my noticing that (which it probably was), the temperature...thing over my shield bracelet grew a countdown. I didn't bother asking The Voice what it was—maybe it was time until failure, time until the bracelet grew hot enough to start causing burns, something like that.

Said countdown had less than thirty seconds on it.

I cursed, sent one more massive force blast down the entryway, and leaped down into the subbasement, shutting the trap door as hard as I could with a thought once Mouse had followed me.

There was a large, intricate magic circle on the floor of my lab, with Nanoha kneeling at its center, hands pressed to the ground. She was shaking slightly, and beads of sweat had formed on her face. Molly stood off to her side, clutching Bob and _Fidelacchius_ and frowning worriedly. "We have to go _now_, Nanoha," I said.

"Not...yet..." Each word was forced out, as if whatever she was doing took so much effort that she could barely manage to speak. "Minute...more...maybe..."

"_We__ don__'__t __have __a__ minute__!_" I could hear voices from above; the wireframes matching them were closing in on the trap door.

She looked up at me, teeth gritted. Then she gave a single, sharp nod. "_Transporter_," she said, and with a sound like the universe itself screaming, the walls of my lab peeled away.


	4. Chapter 4

I am not going to go into great detail about what I saw during Nanoha's prematurely triggered teleportation spell. Suffice it to say that although H.P. Lovecraft's descriptions of things so horrible and alien that merely looking at them causes madness are slightly exaggerated (at least with normal vision; the Sight can very easily do exactly that), a scenic tour of various types of non-Euclidean geometry is still not very conducive to one's lunch remaining in one's stomach. At least there didn't seem to be anything alive watching us.

Except for the amused-looking woman with the parasol, but I'm pretty sure she was a hallucination.

Hell's bells, I _hope_ she was a hallucination.

I must have blacked out at some point, because I woke up laying on the grass, with the sun shining straight over my head. The mother of all headaches reported in right on time, and I had to squeeze my eyes closed for a minute before I could look around again.

Molly was starting to sit up beside me, still clutching Bob and _Fidelacchius_. Nanoha, on the other hand, was still out cold, the slow rise and fall of her chest the only clue that she hadn't done worse than just give in to exhaustion. I had a feeling she'd stay that way for a while. Mouse was nowhere to be seen, which at this point could mean any number of things.

"Ugh," Molly said groggily. "What the hell was that?"

"Whatever it was, it's the reason we use the Ways instead of cooking up teleportation spells," I said. "That's your lesson for today, grasshopper. Did you see what happened to Mouse?"

She shook her head. "I just woke up. How long were we out?"

"That's a good question. So is 'where are we?'" I replied. We were apparently in the backyard of a good-sized two-story house. Looking up and around, I saw the backyard was also occupied by what was either a fairly large shed or a guest house, as well as a small pond. From what I could see over the fence, around the house seemed to be a fairly average assortment of similar houses and apartment buildings, with a bunch of high-rises a little further away. Okay. We were in a city. Some city. Somewhere. _Nice__, __Harry__. __Really __flexing__ those__ investigative __skills __right __there__._

_"__Your __total __time __unconscious __cannot__ be__ measured__ accurately __due __to__ temporal __inconsistencies__." _I almost jumped as the jewel-thingy's voice popped back into my head; apparently the mental link was still active. _"__Total__ time __unconscious__ after __arrival __was__ approximately __one __minute__, __eight __seconds__. __We __are __in__ Uminari __City__, __Uminari __Prefecture__, __Japan__, __Earth__. __This__ is __my __Master__'__s __parents__' __home_."

"Guess are little trip through the bad part of hyperspace worked, then. Wait. 'This' as in the city, or 'this' as in the house?"

"_You __are __currently __in__ the __back__yard __of __the __Takamachi__ residence_. _You__ are __also__ speaking __out __loud_."

Molly was looking at me funny. I held up the jewel. "One of her gadgets," I said, nodding in Nanoha's direction. "It talks in your head. Does a lot of other things, too."

"_I__ can__ also __speak __out __loud_," it spoke out loud, which—to my apprentice's credit—only got a raised eyebrow out of her. "_My__ Master__'__s __last__ order __was __to __render__ assistance__ to__ this__ Guest __User__; __I__ will __continue __to__ do __so __as __long __as __you __continue__ to__ act __in __my__ Master__'__s __best __interests__._"

"Which you will, if you know what's healthy for you." The voice came from right behind us; I whirled around to face—oh crap.

He was a middle-aged Japanese guy, big but not huge. He had greying black hair and dark brown eyes, but the family resemblance to Nanoha was obvious. And he was holding up a katana in a way that made it very clear that he knew how to use it. "Easy. No sudden moves. You're lucky Raising Heart spoke up when she did; this blade might have been at your throat by now. Now, who are you, why are you with my daughter, and why were you all unconscious on my lawn?"

Well. That could have been worse. It could have been better, granted, but it definitely could have been a lot worse. Or perhaps not, judging by the very large, dog-shaped shadow I noticed in some nearby bushes. (For a cross between a Caucasian shepherd and a main battle tank, Mouse can be surprisingly stealthy if he wants to be.) "Um. Harry Dresden. Professional wizard. She's Molly Carpenter, my apprentice. Your daughter hired me to help her hide from some people who were chasing her. Things got a little hairy, and she decided to teleport us here to throw them off. She was a little vague, but she said you could protect her. Somehow."

He nodded and lowered the sword. Apparently, I had answered correctly; I took that as a cue to stand up. He offered his hand and I shook it. "I'm Nanoha's father. Shiro. You said you're a wizard...you're with the White Council?" His English was flawless, just as Nanoha's had been.

"Yes." Huh. Another guy named Shiro with a katana. Was 'Shiro' just a swordy kind of name in Japan or something? And apparently Nanoha wasn't exaggerating when she said her family was in the know—the White Council wasn't exactly top secret, but neither did it advertise its existence to the mundane world. "Not on official business, though. I work as a private investigator in Chicago; she must have found me in the phone book."

Another nod. "I've never cared much for the Council, personally." Molly made an indistinct noise of approval at that. "But if Nanoha trusted you enough to give you Raising Heart, well, I trust my daughter's instincts on these things. He _can_ be trusted?"

I wasn't quite sure who he was addressing with that question, until the jewel in my hand spoke up—in my mind, this time. _"__Guest __User__, __Mr__. __Takamachi __is __requesting__ that__ I __read __private __information __from__ your __mental__ state__ and__ convey __it __to __him__. __No__ information __other__ than __your __intentions __towards__ my __Master __will __be __read__, __no __external __information__ can__ be __written __to__ your __mind__, __and __none __can __be__ conveyed__ to __other__ individuals__—__not__ even __my __Master__—__without __your __express __permission__. __Do __you __accept__? __Please __speak __response__ aloud __to __verify __conscious __decision__."_

I blinked a couple times. Hell's bells. The fact that it had asked my permission _probably_ meant that I hadn't given this thing an all-access pass to the inside of my head just by activating it, but I still didn't want it to go poking around in my thoughts. I frowned and mumbled "No."

"_This __Guest __User__ has __not __authorized__ access __to __those __elements __of __his __mental__ state__,_"the jewel-thing immediately spoke aloud. "_However__, __his __actions __so __far __have__ indicated__ a__ sincere__ desire __to __aid __my __Master__, __despite __confusion __regarding __elements__ of __the__ situation __he __does __not __yet __understand__, __although __his __motives __may__ be __partially __mercenary __in __nature__. __Similar __inferences__ can__ be __made __regarding__ Miss __Carpenter__. __The __canine __currently __residing__ in__ the__ bushes __to __your__ left __is __so __far __unreadable__, __but__ seems __to __be __both __highly __intelligent __and__ loyal __to __this__ Guest __User__."_

Shiro looked sharply at Mouse's hiding place, where the gigantic dog was already noisily revealing himself, shooting what could only be a canine glare at the jewel-thingy. He covered his surprise well. "Is that a Foo dog? Been a while since I've seen one of those."

"No worries," I said. "He's friendly. To people who aren't trying to chop my head off, anyway."

Shiro shook his head slowly. "A Foo dog. A bloody _Foo__ dog_. I guess my daughter went to the right place." He sighed. "That'll have to be good enough for now," he said, looking down at his daughter's unconscious form. "Where's Vivio?"

"Pardon?" It sounded like a name, but not one that I'd heard Nanoha say.

"Vivio. Nanoha's daughter. Where is she? She had to have been with her."

"Her—she has a _daughter_?" Molly spoke up, echoing my own thoughts. In the limited time I'd had to speak with her, I hadn't figured Nanoha as the type who'd have a kid at her age.

That raised a whole bunch of new questions, and more questions were exactly what I didn't need right now. "Nanoha hasn't had anyone with her since I met her," I said carefully. "Though that was only a few hours ago."

Shiro frowned. "That doesn't make sense. She wouldn't have left her behind. Has Nanoha mentioned her? At all?"

"Not that I can recall."

He shook his head. "She must have left her with Fate...I wish she had told us more."

"She contacted you?"

"She called a few days ago, told us that she'd gotten in some kind of trouble, but that she was okay and not to worry. She asked me how I'd go about 'disappearing' for a few months."

"Why would she ask you about that?"

He smiled joylessly. "Let's just say she had good reason to believe I was familiar with the topic, and leave it at that. Now—"

He was interrupted by a loud noise that resembled nothing so much as an entire forest being chainsawed down simultaneously. I looked down.

Nanoha had started to snore. Loudly.

There was an awkward moment of silence. "Why hasn't she woken up yet?" Shiro finally asked, his voice edged with concern.

"Well...I think she put a lot of energy into that teleport. And she kind of implied she hadn't slept properly in a few days."

"So she knocked herself out. Again." He shook his head. "She always pushes herself too hard."

"Pushes herself too hard? You do know she's been running for her life?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I know quite a bit about what she's been doing, including a lot of what she refused to tell me. Doesn't mean I like to see my baby girl do that to herself, again and again..." He sighed. "We can talk about this later. For now, let's get her inside." Without further ado, he gently hoisted her up and began to carry her over towards the house.

"Right," I said. "Molly? Mouse?"

* * *

><p>The Takamachi household...well, it was big. Not huge, but big, especially considering I'd heard living space was at a premium in Japan. And its sheer emptiness made it feel all the larger—I'd expected a few more people from the way Nanoha had talked about her family.<p>

"Does anyone else live here?" I asked Shiro.

"Just my wife, Momoko, and I. She's at work right now—we've been alternating days off since Nanoha called us, in case something happened." He looked back at me, frowning. "It does feel too quiet in here, doesn't it? It's just been the two of us since the children moved out. They stop by once in a while—mostly Miyuki, my other daughter; she lives close by—but it does get lonely sometimes. Which is why we spend most of our time at the cafe."

Nanoha's room was pretty much what you'd expect from a nest that empty—a precisely made bed, carefully arranged stuffed animals, and various other mementos of a childhood not long past, all intended to let their owner know that no matter where she had gone, she always had a home there.

Wish there was a place like that for me.

Shiro carefully laid his daughter down on the bed; she murmured something indistinct and rolled over. "Rest well, little Nanoha," he whispered, then motioned us out of the room. "All right," he said once the door was closed. "How long do we have?"

"I don't know. Nanoha said the teleport would throw off their tracking spells, but she didn't say by how much or for how long."

He grunted neutrally. "Let's assume they're already on their way. There's a reason Nanoha came back to me for help."

"She said you had 'resources', whatever that means."  
>"Well, she's not wrong. My old job...I have contacts. I know some safehouses. And if it comes down to a fight...well, it's been a while, but rest assured I can handle myself."<p>

I remembered him standing over me, katana raised, and nodded. "Considering what she's told me, I was hoping to get her under official White Council protection as soon as possible. I don't think any mundane security is going to help for long, and...the Council needs to know what she knows."

"Hm." Shiro took a moment to consider that. "I may not like the Council much, but I think you're right about that. The protection part, anyway; I doubt much good will come of them knowing about the TSAB."

"The what?" The introduction of an acronym has, in my experience, never helped a situation in any way.

"The TSAB. It's..." He paused. "Nanoha hasn't told you much about who she's on the run from, has she?"

"Only that it's an organization she works for. And that they're, uh, foreign."

"Organization. Well. It's _definitely_ an organization," he said cryptically. "And has she told you how 'foreign' they are?"

"She has, yeah."

"And you believed her?"

"It's really the only thing that makes sense, unless she's a time traveller or something."

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Molly asked. I hadn't specifically mentioned the part about where Nanoha had come from to her.

"Space," I said. "The final frontier. Except it's apparently not much of a frontier."

"Oh," Molly said. "_Oh__."_

"Yeah," I said. "It's _that_ big."

"I need to make a few calls," Shiro said. "Help yourself to anything in the fridge; it's probably the last time I'll be seeing it for a while." He paused thoughtfully. "Actually...Molly, was it? Watch over Nanoha for me. If she wakes up, she's likely as not to blast out of here and try to draw them off. She has this _thing_ about getting other people involved, even when she's the one who needs protection. Suppose that's what I get for trying to give her a normal childhood," he said with a rueful grin.

"Uh..." Molly looked over to me for confirmation.

"Sure. Wait, hang on." I held out Nanoha's talking jewel-assistant-thing. "Give this back to her if she wakes up. I'll hang on to the skull for you." I made sure that the jewel passed in front of the skull's eye sockets as I dropped it into Molly's hand, then gently picked up the skull. "Oh, by the way," I asked Shiro, "where's the bathroom?"

"Down this hall and over to the right."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," Shiro said. "Now, like I said, there are calls that need to be made. With any luck, we should have at least an hour; that should be time enough to get things into motion."

* * *

><p>I ducked into the restroom, still holding the skull. I closed the door, switched on the fan, and quietly said, "Okay, Bob. We need to talk."<p>

The skull's eye sockets glowed a bright orange, and a voice came from deep within it. "Holy _shit_, boss. What have you gotten yourself into this time?"

Bob was a spirit of air and knowledge that was bound to the skull. I'd 'inherited' him from the man who had first taught me magic, if you consider 'scavenged from his house after killing him in self-defense' to be a legitimate definition of 'inherited'. Bob was a virtual encyclopedia of magical information—both the techniques of magic and the various supernatural beings out there—and his knowledge had helped me out of countless scrapes.

"I'm still trying to figure that out. I was hoping you could help with that. How much have you seen?"

"I was only there for the teleport spell that chick cast. And I got a good look at that jewel thing you were carrying. Boss, I have no idea what we're looking at here, and that makes me very, very worried. I've got some basic impressions, but not much."

"Figures." If Bob was worried, so was I. He wasn't all-knowing—in fact, there were a number of things he knew surprisingly little about—but he'd never come up completely blank on anything that I could recall. "Can you give me whatever you did get?"

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. The...the teleport spell. It definitely took us through the Nevernever, but not any part of it I've ever seen. If I had to guess...I'd say the spell took a few stray particles in the air with a tiny wisp of a sympathetic connection to the destination—maybe they were in the general area a long time ago or something—and used them to brute-force open both ends of a brand-new Way. And something like that would have taken us...look, you know how most of the Ways are through Faerie? Generally closest to Earth, both in terms of distance and general environment?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Forcing open a Way with such a faint connection might have taken us out into the outer regions of the Nevernever, where virtually nothing works like it does here. Hence the screwy geometry around there. Hell, Harry, it was hard to tell what anything was out there, but you might be one of the only mortals alive to get a good look at the Outer Gates."

"Hell's bells," I said. It seemed like the most appropriate response.

"No kidding. And I don't know what the hell that spell was or how she did it, but...Harry, that shouldn't have been possible. Manipulating the connection between Earth and the Nevernever like that...That's Faerie Queen-level magic. Not in terms of power—the Nevernever's malleable, you could probably do it if it was just a power thing—but the focus it would require, the understanding of how that connection works, it's just not something a human should've been able to do."

"Right," I said. "I kind of figured. And the jewel?"

"Yeah. The, uh, jewel. Boss, I don't know if you've gotten a look at it with the Sight yet, but that ain't just a jewel."

"Again. Kind of figured."

"It's a custom focus of some kind, like your staff or your blasting rod, but it's the most complex and intricate one I've ever seen. And when this chick was running power through it, setting up the spell...well, I only know the theory of how computers work—not like I could get much more, living around you—"

"Well, excuse _me__—_"

"—but if I was going to design one that ran on magic, I'd imagine it would look a heck of a lot like that. Or, more likely, like the crudest, most basic parts of it. Where did she even get something like that?"

"Probably from Starfleet Academy."

"Ah, right. That. So. Aliens, huh?"

"Yep."

"Figured they'd show up eventually."

"What, you knew they were out there?"

If Bob could have rolled his eyes, he would have. "No, Harry. But it's pretty obvious. Life is _everywhere_, both on Earth and in the Nevernever. It can survive in the most ridiculously hostile conditions, it can form in the most unlikely places. And statistically speaking, Earth can't be the only planet where it's formed. So," he said, "what kind are they?"

"What?"

"You know. The aliens. I mean, I know the girl is an Earthling, but you must've gotten a good look at a couple of them when you were fighting them off. What kind are they? The Star Trek kind, with weird-colored skin and funny-looking ears, but with women who have all the right curves in the right places? Or are they the, uh, Lovecraft kind?"

Considering his incorporeality and lack of, well, humanity, Bob's interest in human sexuality borders on the bizarre. I pay him in romance novels. "Come to think of it...I didn't get a good look at the goons who broke down my door, but they looked human. Not just humanoid, actually _human_. Height was right, general shape seemed right—at least as far as I could tell through the helmets and uniforms."

"Hmm. That's...weird. Convergent evolution, maybe."

"Maybe," I said. "In any case, I'm going to need you to stay idle for a while. You okay with pretending to be a disturbing heirloom for the time being?"

"As long as I get to watch whatever happens next. Hell, boss, I haven't seen anything new—really new—like this in decades. And hey, having Molly hold me like that? Payment enough." He paused. "You know, she's probably going to ask why you're dragging me along eventually."

"I know." Molly didn't know about Bob, and for good reason—he's kind of fuzzy on human morality, and some of the spells he could (and would) teach her were exactly the kind of temptation she didn't need. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

* * *

><p>There was someone else in the house when I came out. I could hear a distinctly female voice speaking with Shiro from downstairs, one I didn't recognize. I frowned and Listened in as I started toward the stairs.<p>

"—involved in this? It could cost you your career. Maybe more, if what you've been telling me is true."

"Shiro, I'm frankly insulted. Nanoha is my friend, and has been for more than a decade. For heaven's sake, she's practically my daughter-in-law. Career concerns are a minor detail next to that. Furthermore, you should realize that if what I'm telling you is true, it's absolutely critical—for myself, and for virtually everyone she knows—that Nanoha remains free."  
>"Yes, but—" Shiro sighed. "You're right. Of course you're right. Even the White Council—oh. Hello, Mr. Dresden," he said as I came into view. "Lindy, this is Harry Dresden. He's the Council wizard I mentioned. Mr. Dresden, Lindy Harlaown. She's Nanoha's..." He seemed to consider his words for a split second. "Nanoha's old boss," he finished.<p>

Lindy Harlaown was a hair taller than Nanoha, and by 'a hair', I mean 'a whole lot of mint-green hair', tied back into something that might have been described as a ponytail if there hadn't been so damn much of it. Yes, you heard me right. Mint. Green. Hair. And unlike Molly, who'd sported something resembling that a few times, she managed to make it look perfectly natural. Other than the hair, though, she was pretty in a very..._young _way. Pale skin with nary a wrinkle or blemish to be seen (save for an odd pattern of four green dots on her forehead), a lean, fit body without a hint of extraneous fat...it didn't really add up with what she'd said about Nanoha being 'practically her daughter-in-law'. Hell, from her tone of voice—soft, but authoritative—I'd expected a woman twenty years older, at least. _Aliens_, I reminded myself. _She __probably __has__ the__ technology__—__or__ magic__—__to __look __like __whatever __she __wants __to__ look__ like_. "Mr. Dresden," she said, bowing Japanese-style. "I'm afraid I know little of the White Council, but it is good to have someone along with an alternative perspective on the situation."

"Pleasure. Though I think my perspective might be more useful if I had a better idea of what the plan is here."

"It _was_ simple," Shiro said. "We were going to get Nanoha to a magically protected safehouse, and then contact the White Council and seek their help, assuming you could, in fact, convince them to take Nanoha under their protection."

"I don't think that would be a problem," I said, remembering what Bob had said about Nanoha's magic.

"Perhaps. Lindy, however, thinks that she has a way of getting Nanoha somewhere much safer and much farther away, via means that are much more difficult to trace than a simple teleport. Her plan, however, is much riskier, involving as it does sending a signal that will draw the vultures straight toward my house."

"And then dropping a beating like they could never imagine onto those vultures," Lindy said, smiling.

"Well, yes. That part does hold some appeal. And I've already said it's a better plan, Lindy. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Wait," I said. "What kind of signal?"

"A distress call," Lindy said. "Encrypted so that only one specific ship's crew could read it. And once they did, help would be on the way within a couple of hours. Probably less. They could stop an attack in its tracks, evacuate Nanoha, Shiro, and I—plus the rest of Nanoha's family, who Shiro's already contacted—in a minute or two, and be on their way in a blink of an eye."

There was an unspoken "but..." at the end of that. I spoke it, of course.

"But that distress call would either be routed through the ship that Nanoha's pursuers are deploying from, or the only TSAB comms satellite in Earth orbit—which they're monitoring, if they're even remotely competent at their jobs." There was that acronym again. I was really going to have to figure out what kind of TLA (or would that be FLA?) it stood for soon. "While they couldn't read its contents, they'd be able to locate the source within minutes."

"So all we have to do is hold out for a _couple __of __hours_ against these people, and then a _deus__ ex __machina _comes along and beats them up? Wow. There's no way that that could _possibly_ go wrong. I thought you said this was the better plan."

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Lindy said, glaring. "Shiro and I can both hold our own in direct combat, and I assume a Council wizard such as yourself can do likewise. And if we can hold them off even temporarily, they'll likely retreat and request some heavier firepower; and let me assure you, the red tape involved in that kind of request—especially on an unadministrated world—will give us another hour right there."

"So...we're relying on _bureaucracy_ to save us." I shook my head. "I don't know if that's if the stupidest or the most brilliant thing I've ever heard."

"And I suppose you have a better idea?"

"Yes! Get her to the White Council like in the _original_ plan!"

Lindy gave me a long, thoughtful look. "Mr. Dresden," she said. "If it was as simple as keeping Nanoha safe, taking her to the White Council _would_ be the best option, at least in the short term. But the situation is rather more complex than that, as I have been explaining to Shiro. If the Council is found to be sheltering her, the consequences could be dire."

"Dire? How dire are we talking here?"

"I don't know," she said. "The events surrounding Nanoha's framing are still...unclear, to say the least. But what is clear is that _someone_ wants her out of the way, someone with a great deal of power, and from what I understand, your White Council would not be much of an obstacle if their shelter did not prove 'out of the way' enough."  
>A chill went down my spine. The people I had faced so far, while tough, didn't seem like they'd be much threat against a prepared Council stronghold. But on the other hand, I had no idea whether they were run-of-the-mill grunts or the best of the best.<p>

And besides. They had a spaceship. They were in orbit _right__ now_. I've seen _Aliens_; I know what 'the only way to be sure' is. "But if you take Nanoha offworld, Earth stops being interesting to them."

"For certain values of 'interesting'. But yes, they'd likely leave Earth alone for the time being if they knew Nanoha wasn't here."

"Okay. I get it. We need to get her onto your magic rescue spaceship, and we need to attract attention to ourselves to do it. Attention which we might be able to deal with or delay." I shook my head. "This is still a bad idea."

"You don't have to be part of it," Lindy said. "You got Nanoha to us; we won't force you to do anything else. You and your apprentice can leave now, go to the White Council, and tell them everything you know. It's well past time we made official contact with Earth, anyway, and if this is what sets it off, so much the better. Or go back to your lives and forget any of this ever happened. It doesn't matter much."

I thought about that for a moment. On the one hand, I did very much have a life to go back to, and knowing Chicago, something would inevitably start eating people if I left for more than a week. On the other, well...Nanoha needed help. A lot of help. And while I didn't know the details, I now knew she had a daughter waiting for her, somewhere out there. Even _if_ she had all the backup in the world...maybe, just maybe, I could make a difference by being there. And then there was the whole information thing—I needed to know more if I was going to go back to the White Council with a story this crazy. "I'll think on it," I said. "In the meantime, though, I have an idea. Where is this magic...space...radio thing, anyway?"

* * *

><p>Okay. Bear with me for a moment. Wizards don't get along with technology. If it was invented past World War II or so, it just doesn't work well if magic is nearby. Maybe it increases the rate at which stuff rusts or decays, maybe it's blah blah quantum technobabble. Whatever it is, it's a fundamental rule one has to deal with when learning magic. I don't have any electronics (or hell, even electricity) in my apartment, and my car is an old, <em>old<em> VW Beetle that _still _breaks down, despite weekly maintenance.

Of course, that all hinges on the assumption that the technology in question wasn't designed to work with magic in the first place. Which is something I'd assumed was impossible; but, well, I've seen a lot of impossible—or at least highly unlikely—things today.

Take this magic space radio thing, for example. It was about the size of a hardcover book, and seemed to consist entirely of a screen. Lindy explained that it could quickly record a video, encrypt it, and transmit it pretty much anywhere in the galaxy.

Anywhere. In. The. Galaxy. I'd have to think about the ramifications of that later.

"And it runs on magic?" I asked.

"In a sense. It's a mix of magic-channel circuits and solid-state electronics much like the ones on Earth."

"But that's impossible. You'd fry the electronics."

She shrugged indifferently. "They're shielded."

"Shielded. Right. Of course they're shielded." I shook my head. "Okay. I'm going to try something that probably won't work. Shiro. Have you been on a vacation somewhere recently? Anywhere, just as long as it's nowhere near here."

Shiro nodded. "Momoko and I went to Paris about eight months ago."

"Paris. Perfect. Did you take pictures? Any memorabilia? Even money's good, if you've still got any. I need as much of it as you can find on short notice, ideally with a landmark. Like the Eiffel Tower or something."

He frowned. "I'll see what I can find."

"Good. I'll also need someplace I can set up a good-sized circle. Lindy, can you get that thing set up so that I only have to press one button to send the message?

"Yes. I'll need a moment to record it."

"Great. Wonderful." I dug into the pockets of my duster, and, after some searching came up with one of the pieces of chalk I keep around just for just such an occasion. "Let's make some magic."


	5. Chapter 5

The idea was simple, in theory. Thaumaturgy works on the idea of sympathetic connections—using a small-scale representation of something-or-other, simulate the desired effect in a closed magical environment (usually a circle), then break that circle, allowing the forces of magic to recreate that effect on the real deal. If it sounds vague, that's because it is—given items with the right connection, plus enough power and time, you can accomplish virtually anything using thaumaturgy. In this case, the goal was to create a sympathetic connection between Lindy's radio and, well, Paris. If it worked, when we fired off the distress signal, it would look to Nanoha's pursuers like it was originating from somewhere in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. With any luck, they'd be running around France on a wild goose chase while the intended recipients showed up and got Nanoha out of here.

There were only a couple problems. One, it was difficult to predict how long the effect would last, and they might realize they'd been had even without it fading.

Two, I'd never done anything like this before. I had to run back to the bathroom and check with Bob to find out if it was even possible. He laughed and asked if I'd ever actually been to Paris. When I said no, he chuckled again and said, "Well, you're gonna need a lot of props. But yeah, _if_ you can create the link, the rest of it should work."

As I returned, I overheard Lindy recording the message. "—being pursued by what I believe to be rogue elements within the Dimensional Navy. Attempts at negotiation have failed, and by the time you receive this, we may already be under hostile fire. I am therefore ordering immediate extraction for myself, Captain Takamachi, and up to five civilians. Do not attempt to trace this message's origin; our location is—" She paused, then rattled off what sounded like longitude and latitude coordinates. "And Fa—Enforcer Harlaown. If you're hearing this, which you should be...I'm counting on you. And more importantly, _she__'__s_ counting on you. Don't let us down. End message." She tapped the screen on the radio-thing, then looked up to find me staring.

"Dimensional Navy? _Captain_ Takamachi?" I said incredulously.

"Yes...?"

"This isn't...Hell's bells, you people aren't just space pirates or something, are you? You're actual _military_. From the actual government. Space government."

She cocked an eyebrow at me. "You didn't...ah. So that's why Shiro introduced me that way. I suppose he didn't want to scare you off. My _proper _title is Admiral Lindy Harlaown, of the Time-Space Administrative Bureau's Dimensional Navy."

I almost choked. "_Admiral_?"

"Indeed. Which no doubt has you wondering why I can't just order these thugs away."

I hadn't quite gotten to that part yet—I was still processing "Time-Space Administrative Bureau"—but I nodded dumbly.

"As I said, things are...complicated right now. We don't know who framed Nanoha or why, or how high up they are. I _will_ attempt to order them to stand down, but not until I'm sure we can handle whatever happens next. From what I've seen, chances are that they'll simply ignore me, and throw one more charge on the inevitable court-martial."

"But—but—_Time__-_Space? You people do time?" Was my first guess right? Was Nanoha a time traveler after all?

She waved a hand dismissively. "Overly optimistic bureaucrats gave the Bureau that name, the way I understand it. We're no closer to figuring out time travel than Earth is. Now, if I'm done being your personal encyclopedia, shall we get started with whatever it is you're trying to do?"

"Still waiting on Shiro. We need whatever he can come up with."

She nodded. "I still find myself having difficulty understanding how this spell is supposed to work. I'm familiar with the idea of sympathetic connections—we use them for things like targeting and long-distance communication. But using them in this manner, for this kind of misdirection...I was never taught that anything like this was possible, let alone how to do it." She smiled. "I think we may have more to learn from Earth than anyone realized."

Before I could answer, Shiro walked in, clutching a big cardboard box. "This is everything I could find," he said, setting it down in front of me. "Does it look like enough?"

I peered into the box. A little ceramic model of the Eiffel Tower. A few euro coins. Pictures, lots of pictures. A boarding pass stub from the airport, what looked like a key-card from a hotel, and a few receipts from restaurants.

Oh, and the most interesting part: several printouts from Google Maps (wait, I thought Google was some kind of search thing), showing downtown Paris, with little annotations showing where all of these things were acquired. Including every single one of the photos. "You know, I think this might work."

"Good," he said. "I tried to be thorough."

"Thorough, nothing. This is better than I could have hoped for." I thought over the spell again. Originally, the plan was to make the link using a mental image of Paris based on, and tied to, the props. It'd be flimsy and unreliable if it worked at all. But with this, I could do something much more effective: I could construct a kind of mini-Paris right here in Shiro's living room, like the ongoing Little Chicago project currently lying in my basement. It'd still be far from perfect, and useless for any precise work, but for a temporary distraction it'd work wonders. "All right. Help me clear a space."

It took a few more minutes of moving furniture around, but I finally got enough room to set up an extra-large circle. I didn't close it yet, but instead began laying out the items. Photos of the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, and a dozen or so other photos of things I probably should have recognized but didn't went into their respective positions. So did the Eiffel Tower model, which, as the most "physical" of the props, was going to be the focus of the spell. (Granted, it wouldn't be at the center of the circle—usually the best place for whatever you're trying to use to make a connection—but that shouldn't matter too much in this case.) The euro coins went to a couple banks Shiro had marked on the maps, and the receipts to their matching restaurants. Just about everything had its place, save for the ticket stubs, since Paris's main airport was a bit too far from the city center to fit in the circle.

I stepped back to admire my handiwork. Such as it was.

Well, okay, to be perfectly honest, it looked like someone had dumped a box of Paris memorabilia all over Shiro's living room. But there was _theoretically_ enough there to create a thaumaturgic connection. "All right," I said. "Everyone stand back."

I took the radio from Lindy, closed the circle with a quick dash of chalk, and sat down in a relatively clear spot near the Eiffel Tower. Slowly and carefully, I studied the various pictures and items, mentally connecting them to the printed-out map of Paris Shiro had given me. Piece by piece, I built up a mental top-down view of Paris in my mind. I tried to imagine it as a living city, cars barrelling down the streets, people going about their business, tourists snapping photos of everything.

Then I focused on the model of the Tower. I tried to imagine it as the real Eiffel Tower; massive and awe-inspiring. And as I placed the radio on the floor next to it, I simultaneously placed it within that mental construct, at about the same spot.

Right then, when everything was in place and the construct was as good as it was going to get, I focused all my will into the circle and, with a swipe of my finger, broke it.

It didn't work. I could feel the power being released around me, but there was none of the focused rush of energy that would indicate a successful connection. I said as much to Lindy and Shiro. "It's no good. There's not enough of a link. I need to get more detail, somehow. That was absolutely _everything_ you could find?"

"No, that's it," Shiro said. "So what's the plan now? I still have some contacts lined up who can get us to a safehouse."

"No, wait," I said, an idea taking shape in my mind. "Hang on. There's one more thing I can try."

* * *

><p>When I went back up to Nanoha's room, Molly was holding Nanoha's jewel thing in her hand, staring at it intently. "Oh, hey, Harry," she whispered, looking up as I entered. "She's still sleeping. But I've been talking to this thing, and <em>wow<em>."

"Wow?"

"Yeah. I mean, for one thing, it can talk, like you said. How cool is that? And it's been showing me stuff. Recordings, or at least that's what it says, and some of the stuff this woman and her friends have done..._wow_. I..._we_ need to learn more about these people. Who they are, what they can do. And how they do it, I guess, because Harry? This stuff can change the world. Make it better."

I put on my disapproving-teacher look. It's not a very good disapproving-teacher look, but it's better than nothing. "And you just automatically believe everything it's telling you?"

"Well, no. But, I mean, if even half of this is true..."

"Careful, grasshopper. In any case, I need that back."

She managed not to look reluctant as she handed the jewel back to me. I nodded my thanks and closed the bedroom door behind me as I headed back downstairs. _Okay_, I thought at it. _'__Raging__ Heart__', __wasn__'__t __it__? __I__ need__ your__ help __again__._

_"__All__ right__, __Guest __User__. __This __unit__'__s __name__ is__ '__Raising __Heart__'__." _Somehow it managed to correct me without sounding the slightest bit indignant.

_Raising __Heart__, __then__. _I nodded towards the messy-looking circle filling up Shiro's living room. _I__ need __you__ to__ use __the __weird__ light__-__projection__ thing__ to__ turn_ that _into __a__ map__ of__ Paris__, __corresponding __to __the __items __already __laid __out __there__. __Can __you __do __that__?"_

There was a pause. _"__It __can __be __done__." _Without a further word from me, the circle suddenly lit up. Lines of light traced themselves out on the floor, forming an incredibly dense, interlocking pattern of blue-white energy that looked quite a bit like the maps of Paris I'd just been working from.

"Well. That's different," Shiro said, raising an eyebrow.

I held up Raising Heart. "Thought I'd get a little help on this."

"Nanoha let you use Raising Heart?" Lindy frowned. "She must have been more...no, no, that actually makes sense, given her situation. Highly unusual, though."

"'Unusual' seems to be the word of the day here." Hurriedly, I reset everything into place, pushing the various photos and knick-knacks a couple inches left or right to match them up better with the map. Then I repeated the spell, closing the circle, focusing on the props, and releasing my will into it. And this time, when I broke the circle, I could feel the connection being made.

"Okay," I said. "It's done. And I just..." I looked down at the radio. A large green button marked 'SEND' was flashing in the middle of the screen. Hesitantly, I tapped it. A little bar appeared under it, filled up with color, and disappeared, replaced with the words 'MESSAGE SENT'. "I think that's it. Now?"

"Now we wait," Shiro said.

* * *

><p>It was about half an hour before things started happening. Lindy, Shiro, and I had spent the intervening time hurriedly discussing how to handle the next attack. We managed to hash out something approaching a plan; Molly tried to join in, but I shooed her away with very specific instructions to keep herself and Nanoha veiled in case things went south. I had no idea if it would actually help, but it was worth a try.<p>

One of the most interesting parts of the discussion was the crash course in TSAB-style telepathy. To me, telepathy was the mark of either a very experienced wizard, or two people close enough to make that kind of mutual mental connection willingly. The TSAB, on the other hand, considered it trivial, to the point where even the most mundane of raw recruits was expected to be able to communicate with their squad by thought. Their way of doing it was surprisingly easy to pick up, though, considering the limited amount of time we had at our disposal.

We were all in position when they finally came, Lindy hiding with Molly and Nanoha, me under a makeshift veil of my own making, and Shiro...Shiro had switched off the lights, closed a lot of shutters—leaving the house quite a bit darker than it had any right to be in broad daylight—and quite frankly disappeared. I had no doubt that he'd reappear at some point, scaring the life (possibly literally) out of some alien punk who'd dared to try and touch his daughter. We all watched the door carefully for what could only have been a couple minutes, but felt like endless hours.

They didn't bother with the door this time, of course. I heard Lindy's mental voice whisper _"__They__'__re__ here__"_, and five seconds later, a significant chunk of Shiro's wall simply _exploded_. Yet another flashbang effect accompanied a flurry of movement and a cloud of dust and wood splinters, as five armored goons—yes, _goons_; I dare you to come up with a better word for these guys—entered the house toting the same vaguely assault-rifle-shaped gadgets as I'd seen on the last bunch, accompanied by—

Accompanied by—

Uh-oh.

Yeah, I'm just going to call it an 'Uh-oh'.

The Uh-oh was humanoid in shape, and seven and a half feet tall if it was an inch. What seemed like dozens of interlocking, angular metal plates, mostly painted blue or dull grey, shifted, clanked, and whirred every time it moved. Its left arm appeared to have some kind of gun built into it, while the right was currently emitting what appeared to be a genuine, honest-to-God bright indigo lightsaber—albeit one that was wide and flat, more like a light-broadsword or something. It was topped by a full-face helmet with a mirrored visor, obscuring whatever was inside it. If anything _was_ inside it. It moved much more like a human than like an invincible death robot—or at least what I expected an invincible death robot to move like—but that didn't prove anything. "_No__ targets__. __Probably __op__-__camo__'__d__. __Switch __to __EVM__," _ came a buzzing, surprisingly feminine voice from its general direction.

I have got to get me one of those.

"_Oh__, _shit_," _Lindy thought-whispered, swearing for the first time since I'd met her. _"__Those __aren__'__t__ supposed__ to__—__that __whole__ program__ was __cancelled__!"_

"_Lindy__, __what__ am__ I__ looking __at __here__?" _Shiro's wary voice came through my mind.

"_A__ Barrier __Frame_,_" _she responded. _"__Powered __armor__ with __an __integrated __mana__ reactor__, __combined__ with __an __Intelligent __Device__. __It__ was __supposed __to __even __out __the__ talent __gap__ in__ the __TSAB__ forces__, __allow__ the __recruits __with__ the __best __tactical __minds__ to __fight __alongside __our__ big __guns_._"_

"_So__ it__'__s__ dangerous__."_

"_Very__. __A__ recruit __without __a __spark __of __magic__ to __her__ name__ could __go __toe__ to__ toe __with __a __B__+-__ranked __mage__ in __the __simulations__."_

"_I __guess__ this__ puts __a __dent __in __the __plan__, __then__?" _I cut in.

"_Hm__. __No__, __no__, __actually__, __I__ think__ it __still __may__ work__. __Just__ ensure __you __hit __the __Frame__ hardest__. __The __electronics __are __much__ more __complex__ than__ the __average __Device__; __you __might __put __it __out __of __commission__ for __a __while__."_

_"__Got __it__. __I__'__m__ ready__ if __you __all __are_." There was the mental equivalent of a nod from the other two, prompting me to drop the veil and yell "_Hexus__!_"

See, here's the thing: TSAB technology is shielded against the normal level of interference given off by magic. That's pretty impressive, considering I'm used to computers frying just because I looked at them funny, but according to Lindy, most stuff wasn't designed to stand up to the sheer potency of a consciously cast anti-technology hex. Instead, they had complex self-repair and backup systems designed to restore everything to working order as soon as possible if it happened, then deploy countermeasures to prevent that specific hex from working again. 'As soon as possible', in this case, meant 'fifteen seconds or less'. It wouldn't be a particularly useful advantage to someone who expected their hex to fry everything permanently.

But to someone who _knew_ it would only give them a couple seconds, and planned a way to take advantage of that brief window...

Sparks flew up as the first spell applied a very large dose of raw Murphy's Law to the various bits of hardware the soldiers were carrying. I have to give them credit; they were turned towards me and firing before I'd finished casting the force spell, but their attacks were poorly aimed and seriously underpowered—the few that came close splashed harmlessly off of my shield. The, what had Lindy called it, the Barrier Frame, seemed to have shut down entirely.

I had almost started to raise my staff for another spell when Shiro finally showed up.

Shiro, it turned out, was a kinetomancer, someone who could use magic to enhance their body's speed, strength, and reaction time. It was a damned rare branch of magic; most people with enough power to do stuff like that were perfectly happy to aim spells from as far away as possible. But among the few I'd met, well, Shiro was the best.

He dropped down from the ceiling—I think; it was so fast that I couldn't see exactly where he came from—katana in hand, and promptly sliced one soldier's rifle-thing in half. Then he whirled around and slashed at another's chest. The cut drew sparks instead of blood, but it hit hard enough to send the soldier stumbling back. Almost casually, Shiro flung out a hand behind him, and a knife appeared in each of a third soldier's legs.

Goon #4 dove behind a couch, yelling something indistinct as he fired a weak, sputtering stream of energy in Shiro's direction. Shiro dodged it effortlessly, slamming the flat of the blade into the fifth soldier's head. He turned to face the Barrier Frame, regarded it carefully for a moment, leaned a bit to dodge another bolt, then lashed out with a roundhouse kick to its chest, toppling it over. Then, without visibly moving, he just _appeared_ behind the soldier using his couch as cover, kicking him down to the floor. "You have been pursuing and attempting to harm my daughter," he said mildly. "You have invaded my home. I have, in return, incapacitated your entire squad, including your little mini-Gundam. I suggest you choose your next words very carefully."

"I...surrender?" The soldier dropped his gun and raised his hands.

Shiro chuckled. "Smart. Hands back on the ground." When the soldier complied, Shiro spoke up in our heads. "_Lindy__. __Do __the __binds_."

Immediately, green bands of light appeared over the hands and feet of each of the downed soldiers, then tightened, securing them to the floor. I was going to have to ask Lindy how to do that, if we made it through this.

"All right, then." Shiro held his sword above the downed soldier's throat. "First things first. I'm assuming you've already called for backup. How many?"

"No! No—there's no backup. We're the whole team." The soldier gulped audibly. "You're—you're Nanoha Takamachi's father?"

"I'm the one asking the questions right now. The next one is, why should I believe you?" He lowered the sword an inch or so.

"We wouldn't...you think we have something heavier than a BF? We weren't even supposed to have to use that! Takamachi's got limiters on her that could ground the Saint King herself, and she's been running herself ragged for a week. This should have been a saint-damned cakewalk."

Shiro's grip tightened around his katana's hilt for a moment. Then he relaxed. "Say I believe you. What do you think happens now?"

"You kill me?"

"Good guess. Not quite, though. What happens next is, you stay here until..."

That was right about when I noticed that the Barrier Frame was rising back to its feet. Quickly. "Shiro! Behind you!" I yelled.

Shiro whirled around and aimed a slash right at the armor's chest. In an instant, the armor's energy blade reappeared and intercepted the attack, then followed up with two blows of its own. The mundane sword stopped the hissing, sparking energy blade, thankfully, but the armor was already sending another slice Shiro's way. And another, and another, driving Shiro back across his living room.

I aimed and threw another "_Hexus__!_" at the hulking armor, but its assault continued unabated. The countermeasures Lindy had mentioned, I guess. Time for something more direct.

"_Forzare__!_" I yelled, putting as much power as I could behind it. The wave of force didn't quite knock over the armor like I'd hoped, but I'd definitely gotten its attention. It ceased its barrage against Shiro, then, blindingly fast, aimed its left arm at me and—

And—what?

A narrow beam of indigo light had lanced out towards me from the armor's weapon, and..._bent_ somehow, burning a neat hole through the wall three feet to my right. I felt a sudden queasiness in my stomach, and I had a feeling it had less to do with my latest near-death experience than it did with the bright green sphere of light hovering near the point where the beam had bent. It felt like the thing was _pulling_ at me somehow, like I'd just fall toward it if I didn't keep my feet on the ground.

The Barrier Frame's operator was evidently as confused as I was. Shiro recovered and landed a vicious slash on its back, which only resulted in his sword glancing off a bizarre, rotating triangular glyph that appeared without warning. It switched off the beam, spun, and unceremoniously decked him in the chest. There was a sickening _crunch_ as he crumpled to the floor. The armor turned to face me again—

Just in time to be pulled off the ground and slammed into the wall behind it as another, larger sphere of light appeared in front of it. It stuck there, limbs pressed up against the wall like a kid on one of those carnival rides.

"Enough. Of. This." Lindy Harlaown stepped down the stairs, her right hand outstretched as if passing judgement on the armored figure before her. Something on the back of her hand glowed with the same emerald light as the gravity spheres, and weirdest of all, four glowing, dragonfly-like wings extended from her back. She approached the immobilized armor, scowling, and waved her other hand through the air. Some kind of holographic screen appeared in midair over her hand, displaying a variety of information—most prominently, a symbol resembling a stylized bird, above a silver triangle enclosing a four-pointed star. "I don't need to tell you what this is."

"_No__, __ma__'__am_," came the slightly strained-sounding voice of the armor's operator.

"Good." Lindy dispelled the screen, but kept the armor pinned to the wall. "So you understand why I can tell you to _stand__down_, soldier."

"_I__'__m__ afraid__ I__ can__'__t__ do__ that__, __ma__'__am__._"

"Oh? Why not?"

"_Orders__, __ma__'__am__._" Something about the way she said it had me immediately ready to send another force blast her way. At least until a pulse of _something_ emanated from the armor, dissolving Lindy's spheres and binding spells—not to mention summoning the mother of all migraines directly into my head. Trying to keep my aim straight, I frantically tried to get the spell out, but the magic just...didn't work. The power was _there_, but for some reason I just couldn't channel it out through my staff.

The armor fell to the ground, landing neatly on its feet. Without another word, it charged towards Lindy, moving faster than something that heavy-looking had any right to move. She waved a hand frantically, but apparently was having the same magic trouble I was. It pulled back a fist, about to deal with her the way it had dealt with Shiro...

"_**Plasma **__**Lancer**__**.**_"

Something _huge_ flashed through the large hole in Shiro's wall, slamming into the Barrier Frame with the force of a bomb, blasting it across the room and slamming it into (and, judging by the _crack_ it made on impact, very nearly _through_) the opposite wall.

"_**Sonic**__** Move**_**.**"

A black-and-yellow blur followed it, just barely resolving itself into a vaguely humanoid shape before it started delivering blow after hyperspeed blow to the armor, using some kind of blade or staff moving far too fast for me to see clearly.

The headache was already starting to clear up, and I reflexively launched force spells at a couple of soldiers who were starting to get ideas about getting up again. The magic was apparently back on; the force spells were a bit weaker than I intended but plenty to discourage any such attempts.

Meanwhile, the blur was finally standing still, resolving itself into a young woman about Nanoha's age with long blonde hair and piercing red eyes. She was standing over the now-motionless Barrier Frame, holding what was apparently a scythe made out of _lightning_, and looking little the worse for wear. "_Lightning __Bind_," she said, flicking her wrist a bit, and rings of light similar to the ones I'd seen Lindy create once again appeared around the limbs of the fallen soldiers. Then she walked over to Lindy. "Admiral Harlaown," she said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Fate," Lindy responded. "But Shiro took a hit from the Frame. He needs help right now."

"Understood. You mentioned several civilians in your distress call?"  
>"Yes. As well as Nanoha, Shiro, and myself, he—" She pointed at me. "And the young lady guarding Nanoha in her room require evac as well."<p>

"And the dog," I added.

"And his little dog too, I suppose," Lindy amended.

I raised an eyebrow at her. Had she just...? Nah, couldn't be.

"Yes, ma'am. _Elesia_, this is Harlaown. I need teleports-in on marked individuals. First one needs medical attention." She pointed at Shiro, and a little spark of light flew from her finger and landed on his fallen form. She started to point at me.

"Hang on," I said. "Need to grab a couple things."

"Of course. We are _extremely _short on time, however. I suggest you hurry."

I rushed upstairs, first peeking into Nanoha's room. Molly, Mouse, and Nanoha were nowhere to be seen, which naturally meant they were right there. "Molly! Mouse! Our ride's here. Blonde girl, lightning scythe, gonna mark you for a teleport out. Take down the veil and make _sure_ you have you-know-what." I shut the door again just as my apprentice popped back into view and headed for the bathroom. "Bob. We're leaving."

"I heard. This is gonna be so great. Alien babes _everywhere_."

"Shut up, Bob." I picked up the skull and headed back out.

The blonde woman—what was her name? Fate?—was already in Nanoha's room, getting an eyeful of the trio it contained.

"Uh, hi," Molly said, raising a hand awkwardly. "I'm Molly—"

"Time for introductions later." Fate's eyes flicked down to Nanoha, who was still—somehow—sleeping soundly. "She's okay. Thank goodness," she said in a whisper I don't think I was supposed to hear. She flicked sparks of light onto Molly, Nanoha, and Mouse, then turned, saw me, and flicked one onto me as well. It felt like a little jolt of static where it hit my forehead. "_Elesia__, _friendlies marked, number 4 for the med bay as well. Commence evac."

"Beam us up, Scotty!" I shouted, just in case they could hear me through whatever she was using for a radio.

She glared at me. "Prepare for teleport."

A circle of light traced itself out beneath me, and then—

There were no screams of spacetime being ripped apart. No visions of things that should not be. One moment I was in Shiro's house, the next moment I was standing on a well-polished metal floor, a bright light shining over me. I looked around and saw Molly, Mouse, Lindy, and Fate around me. And around us was...well.

"Well, this is definitely a big...square...room," I said. I think that's a quote from something. I hope it's a quote from something, because otherwise I just said something very stupid. Well-polished metal seemed to be the overarching theme in wherever this was, metal in all the various shades of grey, blue, and blue-grey, with harsh fluorescent lighting overhead.

"Transport to bridge," said a voice from over to my left. A dark-haired young man in a sharp blue-and-black uniform was seated at some kind of control console; floating holographic screens like the one Lindy had used to display her rank surrounded him. "Successful teleport confirmed; repeat, successful 'port confirmed...Roger." Abruptly, he shot out of his seat and stood at attention. "Ladies, gentleman, Enforcer Harlaown..." His eyes fell on Lindy, and he twitched, straightening his back a little. "..._Admiral _Harlaown, welcome aboard the _Elesia__._" He tilted his head, as if listening to something only he could hear (which, granted, he probably was), and nodded. "Captain Camara requests your presences on the bridge," he said to Lindy and Fate. "He'd like to speak to the civilians as well."

Oh boy. I was a _civilian _now. This day just kept getting better.

"Lead the way, Mister...?" Lindy replied.

"Ah! Uh, Lieutenant Zil Taola, ma'am."

She nodded. "Lead the way, Lieutenant."

"Yes, ma'am. This way, please."

As Taola led us down what felt like an unnecessarily long corridor, I felt a faint rumble beneath my feet. "What was that?" I asked.

Taola gave me a half smile. "That is _Elesia_ going to full thrust for the second time in the last two hours." Another rumble shook the floor, this one much more noticeable. "And that, I imagine, would be the _Netaly_ realizing why we're not responding to their hails. Right up through here," he said, leading us to a door that slid open on its own as we approached.

Behind it was something that was immediately recognizable from a dozen half-remembered TV shows and many more adolescent (and sometimes not-so-adolescent) fantasies. Banks of holographic screens with a dozen or so uniformed crew (more than one of whom were attractive young women) working on them. A very large, impressive seat at the center. A massive front window, looking out on the swirling colors of what could only be hyperspace.

Granted, the one in charge was pretty clearly the impressive-looking guy with the black hair and the eye patch rather than me, but still, stars and stones, I was on the bridge of an actual, honest-to-God _spaceship_.

You know, if it weren't for all the other crap that had happened today, this would now officially be the best day of my entire life.


	6. Chapter 6

I hate feeling irrelevant.

It's not a feeling that comes up often for me. People who can bend the forces of nature to their will tend to be pretty damned relevant in most situations, and sometimes it feels like every last crazy thing that's been going on the last few years has had some connection to me. (Though that could be because I've got a vampire for a half-brother, a Knight of the Cross for a friend, his daughter for an apprentice, a Faerie Queen tripping all over herself to Faust me into being her personal enforcer, and until very recently the shadow of a fallen angel living in my head...) And if I'm not involved in something important, odds are I will be before too long-often as not because I have forcibly inserted myself into the situation. But yet, here I was, in very serious danger of becoming a bystander.

Of course, right then, I wasn't really thinking about that. Most of my willpower was tied up trying to stop myself from running around the bridge like a kid in a candy shop.

"Enforcer T.H." The eyepatched man who had to be the captain nodded to Fate. "Extraction went smoothly, I take it?"

"Not as smoothly as I hoped. But yes, the endangered personnel and civilians were all extracted successfully."

"Well, situation like this, I suppose we take what we can get. Ah, Admiral Harlaown." The captain snapped a salute to Lindy, who returned it. "Welcome aboard."

"Thank you, Captain...Camara, was it?"

"Ray Camara, ma'am. Honor to meet you." It would've been tough not to notice that, not unlike Lindy, the tall, black-haired, clean-shaven captain sounded a good few years older than he looked. I was starting to get used to the idea that these people were more-or-less human despite coming from Yavin or Barsoom or wherever, but the fact that so many of them looked so _young_ was still jarring. All the magic floating around, I suppose. That might also have explained the rainbow of hair colors I saw-everything from Lindy's mint green to one unfortunate guy's bright fuchsia.

"The honor is mine." Lindy gestured to me and my fellow Earthlings. "This is Harry Dresden, of UA-97-local name Earth-as well as his apprentice, Molly Carpenter, and his familiar, Mouse." Camara nodded to each of us in turn-including Mouse, interestingly-before turning his attention back to Lindy. "They have been instrumental in assisting Captain Takamachi and I so far, and I offered them transport aboard your ship in order to avoid capture. Will that be a problem?"

"No, ma'am. Got more than a few empty bunks right now." The captain motioned over a severe-looking red-haired woman in a uniform that the word 'pristine' somehow failed to do justice to. "Mrs. Enterra, this might take a bit," he said loudly. "You have the bridge."

"Aye, sir." She nodded and moved back to wherever she had come from. I think she might have spared a split second to throw a glare at the confused, disheveled civilians currently stinking up her bridge.

Camara nodded after her. "Enforcer, Admiral, the rest of you, If you could all follow me? We should discuss this in private."

* * *

><p>The captain led us down another set of hallways, these far less empty than the long corridor from the teleporter room to the bridge. We passed plenty of busy-looking crew doing what I assumed were space-navy-crew things, many of whom gave Molly and I confused looks as we passed. We eventually arrived at the door to what I assumed were the captain's quarters, and he turned to face us. "Mr. Dresden, Ms. Carpenter, Mr...Mouse, could you wait outside for a moment? I'd like to speak privately to Fate and Admiral Harlaown first."<p>

"Top secret space military stuff. Got it," I said with rather more cheeriness than I felt.

He nodded. "Admiral, Enforcer..." Lindy and Fate followed him in.

The door shut, leaving me, Molly, and Mouse alone in the quiet...hallway? Was there a fancy naval term for hallways? I couldn't remember. I could faintly hear voices through the door, but I couldn't make out a single word no matter how hard I tried to Listen in. Magic soundproofing, maybe? Or was I just losing my touch?

"Harry?" Molly spoke up all of a sudden, deafening in the near silence. I looked over at her; she was still clutching _Fidelacchius_ with one hand, while her other hand was idly scratching Mouse behind the ears. She'd stayed mostly silent since we came onboard, I realized. Weird, but then, come to think of it, I hadn't exactly been my usual smartmouthed self either. It felt like there was something, I don't know, psychologically oppressive about _Elesia_'s clean white hallways. Or maybe it was this whole situation. Maybe we were going through the same thing I'd seen people go through when they're first exposed to the supernatural.

I mean, yeah, we were on a spaceship, and that was cool, but Molly and I had just had most of our underlying assumptions about the world ripped away, then were immediately thereafter all but abducted by a UFO. Looking at it that way, it was a bit of a miracle we weren't outright gibbering right now. "What's up, kid?" I asked, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt.

"It's just...I don't know. It's nothing. Never mind."

I sighed. "It's never 'nothing', Molly."

"Fine. It's just...why are we even here?"

And just like that, she gave voice to all the little niggling doubts that had plagued my mind since the moment I realized aliens were real, and they were also wizards. Regardless, I tried to keep up my implacable-mentor facade. "What do you mean? Weren't you going on about how awesome all these space people are just a minute ago?"

"Well, yeah, but...You know. I saw all that stuff, and I guess I'm starting to think, you know, they don't really _need_us. Us specifically, you, me, and Mouse. We're like dead weight they're dragging around."

I blinked. _That_ was different. Molly had a tendency to try and get Involved any time there was the remotest possibility of action happening-a tendency that had only been mildly curbed by the whole White Court mess a few months ago. For her to outright admit that she felt like dead weight was a bit of a shock, not least because I was starting to feel the same way. I almost opened my mouth, but was saved from the terrifying prospect of having to come up with a response by the door to the captain's quarters sliding open, revealing Captain Eyepatch. "Mr. Dresden? I'd like to speak with you now."

* * *

><p>The captain's quarters were rather larger than the image those words typically evoke. Rather large by any standard, in fact. The door led into a relatively simple office with a desk and a couple chairs, but a door beyond led to what looked like a fully-appointed apartment.<p>

"Have a seat," the captain said, after letting Lindy and Fate out of the room. He followed his own advice, sitting down in the somewhat larger chair behind his desk. I nodded and sat myself, facing him.

"So...nice ship you got here," I said. "Have you, uh, been captain of it for a while?"

"Three years," he said. "And hopefully I'll stay that way for a while longer. _Elesia_'s a good ship; I'd hate to lose her. For any reason."

"It feels...big," I said, trying to keep the conversation going. "I mean, maybe this is just my primitive Earthling ways, but when I think 'ship', space or otherwise, I imagine it'd be cramped-not a lot of space wasted, you know?"

"Hm." Eyepatch didn't answer beyond a grunt for a moment. "You know, Admiral Harlaown's been singing your praises for the last ten minutes, and Fate joined in after she heard the whole story. You sound like a hell of a man. That said." He sighed. "I'm not known for being harsh, but I want to make something clear. I owe Nanoha a favor or ten, and the Admiral's apparently just about the only sane person left in the chain of command. That means they get a free ride until we figure out what the Hell is going on back on Mid-Childa-"

"Mid-Childa?" I'd heard the word before, from Raising Heart, but hadn't bothered asking what it was. "What's that?"

The captain didn't do more than raise an eyebrow at the interruption. "Homeworld of the TSAB. Our capital, I suppose, if you can really call the TSAB a government. In any case, _both_ the Harlaowns are insisting on bringing you along, so I suppose I don't have much choice in that matter. That said, I don't make a habit of letting civilian tourists get in the way of _Elesia_ running smooth, especially in times like this. Until and unless someone can figure out some way of making you and your tagalongs useful, I'm going to have to ask you all to stay confined to the bunks I'm going to find for you. Unless you can find someone willing to chaperone you around, anyway, and I don't foresee a whole lot of people signing up for that job."

Hell's bells. "What, that's it? We're just supposed to stay in our rooms and not bother anyone?"

"Understand, Mr. Dresden, this isn't anything personal. You're not under arrest or anything, and I'm sure either Fate or the admiral has something in mind for you, but it's just part of the necessities of running a military ship. Especially under conditions as stressful as these." He gave me an appraising look. "Unless you've got a better idea?"

"Well..." I racked my brain for potential ways out. "I do have to continue my apprentice's training."

"Then I would suggest training her in magic that can be safely used indoors."

No sale. How about..."Mouse needs to be walked."

Eyepatch looked confused. "You mean he can't...hm, different customs with familiars, I suppose. Very well, crew deck 2 has adequate facilities for that. I suppose I can find you someone to contact when it's time for that. As well as when you and your apprentice need to eat, come to think of it. Anything else?"

There wasn't anything, and so Captain Eyepatch shook my hand, opened the door, and told me he'd call someone to direct Molly and I to our new cell. I mean, room.

Until Fate cut in. "I'll show them to the crew deck, Captain," she said almost immediately.

He frowned for a moment, then nodded. "Berth 208," he said.

* * *

><p>"You shouldn't get the wrong idea," Fate said, walking me and Molly down yet another clean, blue-and-gray-metal corridor and occasionally pausing to greet another crew member. "It may feel like you're being punished for something, but I know Camara. If he didn't want you on his ship, you would not be on his ship."<p>

"Um."

"Well, I suppose he wouldn't throw you out an airlock, but you would likely as not be spending the trip in the brig."

"Even with Lindy singing my praises?"

"It is the captain's ship, and thus the captain makes the rules, especially in matters that can affect the ship's ability to operate smoothly. And the chain of command is a rather distant memory at this point. Even if-no, _when_, even _when_ Nanoha is acquitted and all of this blows over, my mother is going to owe the Captain a rather large favor."

"Wait, the green-haired chick is your _mother_?" Molly cut in. "...I don't see the resemblance."

Fate smiled. "Lindy Harlaown adopted me when I was ten. She's certainly more of a mother than the woman whose genes I carry ever could have been...to me, anyway. But that's a long story. In any case." She stopped and turned to face me, looking me straight in the eye. I braced myself for a soulgaze, but oddly enough, none came.

"If the story you told Lindy is true, you were there to help Nanoha, and kept right on helping her when you had every reason to walk away. Questions of current combat ability or knowledge of naval operations completely aside, that makes you every bit as good as any man or woman on this ship right now. And it means you're exactly the kind of person we need. I wouldn't count on staying in that bunk too long, if I were you," she concluded, smiling again.

Well, as reassurances went, 'you're a good person, so of course you're helping' wasn't exactly the greatest. But I appreciated the effort. Now, on to the very, very odd thing she had just done. "Thanks. So, uh, that thing you just did there, where you looked me in the eye. I don't know how your alien magic stuff works, but do you know what a soulgaze is?"

She frowned. "I think so; the Mid-Childan word for it is 'soul-stare'. It's probably the same thing. Ah! You're wondering how I looked in your eyes without triggering one?"

"Pretty much."

"I don't really know the underlying mechanics of it, but it's part of the same principles that keep our technology running; keeping the flow of magic that people release under control. Most Devices, including mine-" She held out a gold-colored, metallic triangle in her hand. "-have a field that suppresses things like soul-stares, or the Kelyen effect."  
>"The what?"<p>

"Oh, sorry. The...thing where use of magic disrupts nearby unshielded electronics. Come to think of it, Earth doesn't have any of this stuff, does it? So Earth mages must have a lot of trouble using things like computers and cellphones."

"To put it mildly." An idea struck me. "You seem to know quite a bit about Earth."

"Well, yes. I lived in Japan for a few months about thirteen years ago, and I've visited a few times since. As for how much I know about Earth _magic_, which I suspect is what you want to know...very little. Your 'White Council' is very good at concealing its existence. My mother used to be the commander for the dimensional region that includes Earth, and she considered herself to be quite a fan of your culture-and yet it wasn't until she met Nanoha's father that she even found out the Council existed. If you don't mind me asking, why exactly are Earth mages so secretive?"

I thought about that for a moment, then turned it around. "I could ask you the same question-why is the, uh, TSAB so open about it? I mean, aren't most people bitter about the fact that they can't set things on fire with their brains?"

"Well, a quarter of the population can't very well seclude itself from the other three quarters-oh! I suppose I've answered my own question. Earth has a very low incidence of developed linker-cores among the population compared to TSAB worlds, something like one out of every two hundred versus one out of every four."

"What's a linker-core?" I dimly realized that somewhere along the line, someone was going to get sick of giving me information. Didn't seem to be happening yet, though, so I pushed forward.

Fate frowned at me. "What do you mean, what's a linker-core?"

"I mean, what. Is. A. Linker. Core? I've never heard that term in my life."

"That's..." Fate shook her head. "I mean, I guess...since you haven't solved the Kelyen problem...you wouldn't have the instruments...but certainly a _theory_...Um. Your linker-core is, put simply, the organ that connects your soul to your physical body. And that's pretty much all it does, for most people. Some people, however, have overdeveloped linker-cores, which allow them to manipulate the energies the soul interacts with using their minds, and use those energies to affect the physical world. In other words, magic."

"Wait. Back up a minute." My mind was reeling from what I'd just heard, not least because it made entirely too much sense. "You're telling me I can use magic because I have _midi__-__chlorians__?_"

"More or less. Though it's a single organ, not microbes living in your cells."

"Wait, you've seen _Star__Wars_-no, that's not important right now. This...organ, so it's like my heart or my lungs?"

Fate shook her head. "I don't know much more than what I've told you; I'm not a doctor or a scientist. I don't_think_ it's physical in the same way your heart is, but at the same time, it can definitely be made visible. The ship's doctor can probably tell you more about it, if you get the chance to visit the medical bay."

"Right." I sighed. Figures. Yet another world-shaking revelation to pull the rug out from under me, and I can't even get all the information on it. "But back to the secrecy thing. So what you're saying is that Earth has _way_ fewer potential magic-users than it should."

"By a factor of about fifty, yes, based on the studies I've seen. In fact, that explains much about Earth's mage community. With such a small segment of the population capable of using magic at even the most basic level, of course it would be treated as something freakish, to be isolated or outright shunned. The few people with very high potential might command respect for their sheer power, but that would only make the average mundane person fear a low-potential mage even more."

"Yep. So that's half of why the White Council is so secretive; we don't want witch-hunts. That's happened a few times in our history. Unpleasant stuff. The other half is conservation of knowledge. We want to keep careful watch on what kind of knowledge makes it into whose hands. We don't want any random Joe McHedgeWizard being able to summon a homicidal demon, for example."

Fate looked confused. "And that's a potential threat? Summoning a... 'demon'?"

"Well, demons, wyldfae, spirits, any of those kinds of things. You know, things that don't normally belong in the human world."

Now the blonde looked outright shocked. "And these things are...common on Earth? Such that any mage can learn to bind and summon them?"

"Summon, sure. Bind, not so much, and there's the problem. But yeah, there's pretty much a faerie under every rock if you know where to look for them. Why, is it different on, uh, TSAB worlds?"

"You might say that. To my knowledge, there are fewer than three hundred known...er, the term is 'mana-based entities'. There's less than three hundred known MBEs cataloged across TSAB space, most of which are permanently bound to one specific summoner or summoner clan."

I blinked. "Wait. Run that by me again. All of TSAB space, which I'm going to guess is at least a couple different planets, and you only know about a few hundred types of supernatural critters?"

"Not three hundred types. Three hundred, total. Although, granted, that number leaves out golems and uplifted familiars, and counts certain hive-minded beings as a single organism. Summoning is an extraordinarily rare skill, not least because there are so few things to be summoned. I've heard much of Earth's 'demons' and 'faeries', in no small part due to Mother's love for your culture, but this is the first time I've heard that such things might be...well, _real_. Are vampires real, too?"

"Unfortunately for me, yes. In three different varieties, too."

"Do they actually sparkle?"

Molly made a noise halfway between a snort and a choke. I managed to get away with a smile. "Not quite. Though some of them might as well."

Fate nodded seriously. "Hm. Assuming you aren't just leading me on, this information is fascinating. And somewhat disturbing, I must add. I'll have to speak with Mother-ah, here we are." She opened yet another featureless door among many, revealing a small, cramped-looking room. It wasn't quite the sardine can I'd been envisioning-there was enough room between the two double bunk beds to for two people to stand up without bashing into each other or the furniture-but it definitely wasn't officer's quarters. "Do you two want to share a room, or...?"

Molly blushed. Hard. "I... don't think that's gonna work out," I said.

"That's a bit of a problem, then. This is the only completely empty berth we have, and I don't think the Captain would be too fond of the idea of shuffling around assigned bunks just to fit you two in. I suppose I could have you share a room with some of the crew, but..."

"You know, sharing a room with Harry sounds fine," Molly said.

"Good," Fate said before I could object. "Men's showers are down that hall, women's are that way. The display in the wall there," she said, pointing at an embedded screen in the wall above the locker/dresser between the bunks, "is for intercom calls and PA announcements; just double-tap on it with your finger to wake it up. It might pick up some livecast TV stations as well. Normally you might get some things like Internet access, but we can't have any outbound communications right now for obvious reasons; I think there's an encyclopedia program on it if you want to learn...well, learn more about the situation you've found yourselves in. Ah, one last thing-you still have Raising Heart, don't you?"

"Yeah." I hadn't actually had time to activate the little jewel at the Takamachi house, but it was still there in my duster pocket. I took it out.

"Good. If you don't mind, I'd like to take it back to Nanoha. The entire ship has a translation field up, so you don't need to worry about understanding anything without it, and...Raising Heart is very precious to Nanoha. She really trusted you, to let you use it."

"Uh. Okay." Translation field? I was going to have to ask about that, though in retrospect it _did_ explain why everyone was speaking English. I put the little jewel into Fate's hands.

"Thank you. If there's anything you need...well, um, the screen should help you figure out who to contact. I'll likely be very busy with my mother and the Captain for a while, but someone might be able to help you with most things."

"Thanks...I guess..." I winced. I wasn't trying to sound nearly that sullen.

Fate's smile fell again, and she almost started to stretch out her hand toward me before letting it fall. "I'm very sorry about all this, but I promise, we'll figure out something soon. I, or someone else, should be back before too long."

With that, she was off. Molly muttered something about "they'd better", but walked into the room first.

* * *

><p>As soon as it had been established who was sleeping in which bed (me on one side, Molly on the other, and Mouse on the floor), there really wasn't much to do besides turn on the little screen. I double-tapped it like she had said, and not long after, a holographic screen with a whole bunch of pictures and icons and words appeared in midair. I fiddled around with it for a bit, and found it to be surprisingly easy to work with. (Well, the fact that it could be controlled by voice probably helped with that.) Before long, I'd managed to bring up the encyclopedia Fate had mentioned. All it showed me, however, was a message-both text and in a synthesized voice resembling Raising Heart's-saying "<em>Enter <em>_subject __to __search __for_".

Before I could come up with anything, Molly blurted out "Earth!"

The screen responded with another message: "_Select __from __possible __search __results__: __Land__. __Soil__. __Planet__. __Earth __in __the __Mid__-__Childan __magic __system__. __Unadministrated __World__ 97, __locally __known __as __Earth__._" It went on for several more before I interrupted it with "Uh, the unadministrated one."

The result was somewhat better than a simple "Mostly harmless", but not by much. The screen showed a picture of Earth centered on Europe, while the voice read off information. "_Unadministrated __World__ 97, __locally __known __as__-_" She said something that sounded like 'dee-show'. "-, _Tierra__, __Earth__, -_" There was another incomprehensible word, something like 'rithvee'. "_-__and __other __names __in __various __languages__, __is __an __inhabited__, __non__-__contacted __planet__. __It __was __discovered __by __the __TSAB __in__ 0010 __BNC__, __near __the __far __end __of __the __Shanskari__-__Bleven __route__, __approximately__ 80 __kilodims __from __Mid__-__Childa__. __Currently__, __that __is __its __only __known __location __in __dimensional __space__. __Notably__, __it __is __the __closest __known __habitable __planet __to __the __Great __Wall__, __at __only__ 48 __dims __away__._

Well, that was all completely meaningless. The voice continued:

"_Limited __information __about __Earth __is __available__, __as __travel __to __it __is __restricted __under __TSAB __contact __policy__. __It __is __roughly __at __the __center __of __its __star__'__s __habitable __zone__, __and __has __a __temperate __climatic __distribution__. __Most __recent __estimates __put __Earth__'__s __population __at __approximately__ 6.7 __billion__, __slightly __high __for __planets __matching __its __landmass__, __climate__, __and __level __of __technological __development__. __It __has __no __unified __world __government__; __control __over __its __landmass __is __divided __between __approximately__ 200 __sovereign __territories __of __various __political __arrangements__."_

_ "__Besides __its __proximity __to __the __Great __Wall__, __Earth __is __primarily __notable __for __its __unusually __low __concentration __of __developed __linker__-__cores __among __its __population__." _Same thing Fate had told me. "_This __is __suspected __to __be __the __primary __reason __why __it __has __apparently __not __developed __magic__-__based __technology__, __and __thus __has __not __yet __been __contacted __by __the __TSAB__, __despite __achieving __a __level __of __industrialization __comparable __to __many __administrated __worlds__. __Despite __this__, __it __is __also __notable __for __being __the __homeworld __of __retired __Admiral __Gil __Graham__, __Colonel __Yagami __Hayate__, __and __Captain __Takamachi __Nanoha__, __three __of __the __TSAB__'__s __most __decorated __officers__. __Would __you __like __more __information __on __a __specific __topic__?"_

Molly looked at me expectantly. I shrugged. Then, without warning, Mouse made a brief, low growl.

I turned to look at the door, figuring someone was about to enter, but no knock came. It took me a moment to realize the encyclopedia was speaking again.

_"-__speaking__, __familiars __are __animals __magically __bound __to __serve __a __mage__. __The __means __of __binding__, __as __well __as __the __degree __of __compulsion __laid __upon __the __familiar__, __vary __widely __between __cultures __and __magic __systems__; __indeed__, __some __cultures __consider __any __animal __companion __to __a __mage __to __be __a __familiar__. __For __more __information__, __suggested __entries __include__ '__Familiars __in __the __Mid__-__Childan __magic __system__', '__Familiars __in __the __Modern __Belkan __magic __system__', '__Familiars __in __the __Myedoan __magic __system__', '__History __of __familiar __rights__'..._" The list went on for quite a while. I stared down at Mouse. He yawned a bit and resumed his impression of an overly-thick carpet.

By my count, Molly and I spent the better part of four or five hours looking up every entry that remotely caught our interest, and by the time Fate came knocking on our door with dinner, we'd actually managed to learn quite a bit about the situation we now found ourselves in. First off, the Time-Space Administrative Bureau was some unholy combination of NASA, the United Nations, the Department of Homeland Security, and whatever agency owned that big warehouse at the end of _Raiders_. It was technically the defense, foreign relations, _and _space-exploration arm of the government of Planet Mid-Childa. In practice, though, the Prime Representative of Mid-Childa answered to the TSAB directorate, not the other way around, and it had varying degrees of power over a few dozen different star systems scattered across "dimensional space". (Dimensional space, once I got past the technobabble about six-dimensional manifolds and spacial elasticity, sounded a hell of a lot like a very, very big Nevernever, albeit without anything trying to eat you.) This power appeared to derive, as it usually does, from the fact that the TSAB had more and better guns than everyone else, and more and better ships to put them on. Weirdest of all, however, was the TSAB's primary mission-to secure, contain, protect, and research so-called "Lost Logia"-immensely powerful magical relics of past civilizations, most commonly Belka. Yes, _primary_ mission. Finding and containing lost magic WMDs was apparently more important than little things like 'keeping the peace' or 'going where no man has gone before'. It said a lot about how dangerous those WMDs actually were.

The Belkan Empire was a whole subject unto itself; it was apparently the previous major power in dimensional space, having conquered virtually everything known. Its rulers, a line of immensely powerful mages known as the Saint Kings ('King' was apparently gender-neutral, as there were quite a few women listed in their numbers), were _still_ worshipped to some degree or another on almost every known world. More recently, said worship had been mostly confined to two of the most benevolent of the bunch-the first of whom, Friedrich IV, ruled over the fall of Planet Belka itself, and the second of whom, Olivie I, caused the final dissolution of the empire during the century-and-a-half of war that followed. _Gee__, __I __wonder __if __there__'__s __a __pattern __there__?_

The entries on magic were as confusing as they were enlightening: long story short, to the TSAB, magic was science. More specifically, it was a carefully measured, fairly well-understood force with none of the air of mystery or unpredictability it had always carried on Earth. They still had recognizable basics, like trigger words for spells and foci to concentrate the effects, but those spells tended to be complex, math-laden formulas expected to be either memorized or fed to your focus-usually called a Device-which was typically a complex computer that could do targeting and fine-tuning on the fly. The psychological issues of using magic were also in there, and while the TSAB didn't quite have the Laws as the White Council wrote them, the general idea was still definitely there-most modern combat spells and Devices apparently had extensive safety mechanisms to keep them less-than-lethal.

It was weird. On the one hand, turning magic into this systematic, predictable...system was the dream of every wizard who'd ever had a failed potion blow up in his face. Making it work with modern electronics, and keeping some of its unpleasant side effects under control was even better. But on the other hand...magic comes from life, from will. Analyzing it so thoroughly, turning it into a set of equations felt like...well, it felt like midi-chlorians, to be honest. Well, not that bad, really, but it felt like I'd just brushed into a curtain and found out that Oz the Great and Powerful was just a guy with a microphone-disappointing, more than anything.

And beyond that was a growing feeling in the pit of my stomach that Molly had been right. There was video footage of quite a few large-scale battles included in that archive, a lot of it even going all the way back to Belka, and the magic being thrown around...it made anything I'd ever seen on Earth look small-time by comparison. Veils large enough to cover entire starships, shields that could withstand nuclear explosions, and everywhere, flight, flight, _flight_. Oh, sure, there weren't very many specific acts I could point to and say, "nobody on Earth could ever do this". Actually, many similar effects could be pulled off with a whole lot of time, energy, and some decent knowledge of thaumaturgy, but all of these seemed to be instant, or near enough. Like they'd figured out how to compress all of the complex preparation that went into a thaumaturgic spell into a single bit of evocation. I recalled Nanoha's instantaneous circles of light. _Yeah__, __that__'__s __probably __exactly __what __they __do_. Now, granted, the encyclopedia mentioned that mages with that level of power were fairly rare, and its examples of lower-level magical combat looked a bit more familiar, but all that did was remind me of how many _more _people there were with magical talent.

If Earth as a whole was small-time in matters magical, what did that make _me_?

At some point I fell asleep; I think Molly must still have been watching stuff, because the screen was still on when a sharp knock at the door to the room woke me up. With quite a bit of effort, I pried myself off the strangely comfortable bunk and opened the door.

It was Nanoha. She was in what appeared to be a T-shirt and sweatpants, and was carrying two more pairs of same. Which she promptly tossed at me and Molly. "Morning, Mr. Dresden!" she said cheerfully.

"They let you out of bed already?"

"Eh...I recover fast."

"You were practically in a coma the last time I saw you!"

"I recover fast! And doctors and I have an understanding."

"_Captain __Takamachi Nanoha__, __please __report __to __the __medical __bay_," came an insistent voice over the PA, right on cue.

"Ignore that," she said. "In any case!" Her expression grew serious. "I have decided that I'd like to purchase your services once again."

"_What__._" Of all the things I'd expected her to say, that was pretty far down the list.

"In the long term, I need you to help me prove my innocence in the murder of Callia Kinari, and ideally to bring the true perpetrator to light. In the short term, however..." She took a deep breath. "I need you to help me get my daughter back."

"I. Um. From here?" I gestured in the general direction of 'spaceship floating through an especially empty part of empty space'.

"Well, the plan is being worked on. But, that's not why I'm talking to you right now. Before we set up an agreement on this, I need to evaluate certain skills that may be relevant to this kind of thing, see if you're up to the task. Combat skills, mostly."

I was starting to see what she was getting at, and I wasn't sure I liked it. "You want me to, what, practice-duel with you? Spar?"

"Well, not quite..."


	7. Chapter 7

I ended up taking the gym outfit—there hadn't been time to get a change of clothes in our flight from my apartment—but I threw on my duster over it, and loaded myself up with what few tools I had. I remembered Nanoha's words about her approach to training, and I wasn't about to undergo her 'evaluations' without being decently prepared. Nanoha took Molly and I down to the ship's training center, which turned out to be a combination gym/shooting range that was, like many of the facilities on the ship, far bigger than it had any right to be. After retrieving a couple of staff-looking things from a locker, she turned around to Molly and I and put on a Teacher Voice.

"The Caledfwlch S2M Storage Device has practically no AI to speak of, a very limited amount of storage for preprogrammed spells, and an only partially-undeserved reputation for being a low-quality knockoff of a weapon that's so widespread throughout Dimensional Space that the TSAB shouldn't have even needed to knock it off." Nanoha tossed one of the metallic staffs to me, and I caught it and turned it over in my hands a few times. It was basically a four-foot-long metal pole tipped in a two-pronged, bronze-colored assembly. It looked a hell of a lot like a big cattle prod, to be honest. "This is not an S2M. This is an S2T, a training version of it designed to only channel low-power spells."

"So it's a Kalashnikov popgun. Got it."

She nodded. "That's a good comparison, actually. Now, part of the reason the design it's based on, the S2M, is considered so, well, cruddy, is that it's basically the old Belkan L20 design with a staff form-factor and some extra hacked-together code to make it work exclusively with the Mid-Childan magic system, regardless of the problems it can cause. Ah, right you're probably not familiar with the concept of magic systems."

I started to open my mouth to tell her that I had gotten the gist of it from the encyclopedia binge last night, but she was already going again.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting you're not one of my recruits. Okay, so, magic systems are basically...paradigms for magic. They're sets of basic rules, syntax, and predetermined functions you can use to build your spells. From what my dad's taught me, Earth doesn't really have anything that the TSAB would consider a formalized 'magic system', although there are a few things that kind of approach it, like North European rune magic or Japanese _onmyoudou_. That means, from a TSAB mage's perspective, every Earth wizard is basically working from scratch when they learn magic."

"Not really," Molly said. "It's personalized for everyone, yeah, but Harry's been passing on a lot of what he's learned to me."

Nanoha nodded. "Which is why I said 'from a TSAB mage's perspective'. It's not that there's _nothing _systematic or repeatable in Earth's magic—actually, most traditions have a system of elements, which is a feature of any good magic system—it's just that there's very little. Anyhow. The Mid-Childan magic system is one of the most commonly used in the TSAB, since it's highly specialized for ranged combat, has anti-lethality safeties built in by default, and can put out a wide range of effects, including force projection, light projection—both offensively and for illusions—gravity control, binds, and various elemental conversions. It's easy to learn, easy to use, and—yes, Mr. Dresden?"

I had my hand raised. "Uh, thanks for the information and everything, but I thought you wanted to 'evaluate my combat skills'. Not just teach me about how my magic sucks and your magic is wonderful."

Nanoha sighed. "Well, I wanted to do that, too, and I figured you wouldn't be too receptive if I just said I was going to give you a lecture. The thing is, though, I do want to make sure you know what you're up against, and if at all possible I'd like to be able to tell you before having to show you."

"I've already _seen_ what I'm up against. I seem to remember doing pretty well against them, too."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "We just barely escaped them, three times over. And only because we managed to surprise them each time. You call that 'doing pretty well'? "

I made a show of looking myself over. "Still alive, still free, no injuries except minimal cuts and bruises, and I don't _think _I've started a war. Yeah, that was actually a pretty good day for me."

Her expression hardened. "For _you_, maybe. I think my father's take on it might be a little less positive."

Oh, hell. "Sorry, I didn't...How is he?"

"He's mostly fine; a couple cracked ribs is the worst of it. Conscious. He _says _the pain's not too bad, but, well, he'd say that."

"I know the type. Did they tell you how it happened?"

"Most of it. Which brings me back to my point: more-or-less clean getaways like that aren't always going to be an option. If things ever turn into a fair fight, you won't even know what hit you."

"I doubt that." Some part of me recognized that I wasn't even trying to be rational now, that I was just reflexively trying to defend my ego. The rest of me told that part to shut up. "Honestly, give me enough time to prepare, and they wouldn't know what hit _them_."

She shrugged. "All right. I've found you can't often teach someone if you don't show them they need to learn. Follow me."

Okay. I might have mouthed off a bit, but I wasn't just going to let something like _that_ go.

I followed her into a large, boxy room. Each white, plastic-looking wall had some kind of device I couldn't begin to fathom the purpose of on the walls, with some kind of blue-tinted circuitry fanning out from it. "This room is for mock combat exercises," she said. "Normally it's only for use while the ship's docked, since the generators take so much power, but with the engines running quiet and almost all the comm gear turned off, we should be able to get away with using it."

"Uh...mock combat?" I said.

Nanoha smiled. I've seen Winter Court fae with smiles less terrifying than that one. "This room is going to generate a randomized urban environment. I'm going to stay on the ground. You two can use whatever tools, spells, or foci you like to try and get a good hit on me. Sound fair to you?"

Molly spoke up. "I'm not...uh, I'm not really..."

"She doesn't really have a whole lot of combat magic; she's still an apprentice," I finished for her. "Maybe she can sit this out?" Truth be told, combat magic isn't really _my_ specialty, either. I'm a lot more confident in my skills with thaumaturgy. Though I guess that isn't much comfort to the various vampires, demons, and other such things-what-go-bump-in-the-night that I've set on fire.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Miss Carpenter," Nanoha replied, sounding genuinely embarrassed. "I assumed your talents were in the same fields as your teacher's. What _are _your specialties?"

"Illusions, mostly. Veils and stuff. Also some mind...stuff."

Nanoha nodded. "All useful skills, even in combat. Especially mind magic; it's rather rare out here. But you can sit this one out if you want; there's an observation terminal right outside."

For a minute Molly looked like she was going to refuse, but she eventually said "Gotcha" and left the room.

Nanoha looked back at me. "Are you ready?"

"Sure. Wait, how do we decide if _you've_ won?"

The smile widened. "When you give up. Simulation start."

She disappeared, and the room darkened, then exploded into a dizzying array of lights.

* * *

><p>When the glare faded from my eyes, I was in the middle of a deserted city. But for the weird, vaguely Arabic-looking writing I'd seen on the <em>Elesia<em> being all over the place, it could've been any city on Earth. Chicago, even. Abandoned cars, not of any make I'd ever seen but still recognizably cars, filled the streets. Empty restaurants advertising various bits of unrecognizable food (plus what was obviously pizza, weirdly enough) and supermarkets with signs that I assumed said "33% OFF" lined the sidewalks. The whole thing gave off a vaguely post-apocalyptic feeling, especially with the clear, sunny blue sky overhead. A clear, sunny blue sky with two rather large moons visible, I couldn't help but notice.

I let out a low whistle. Hell's bells, this was a _holodeck_. And I'd bet my left ear that it was using shaped ectoplasm to accomplish the effect. It was like a little artificial Nevernever right in the middle of the ship.

Something whizzed by my ear and crashed into a storefront behind me, and I instinctively ducked down between two of the nearby cars. Contrary to what Hollywood wants us to think, cars don't generally explode on contact with a bullet, and can actually make for pretty decent cover in a pinch.

"_So you know how to get your head down,_" came Nanoha's telepathic voice. "_Good, we can skip Lesson One_."

It took me a second to get my mind in the right state to use TSAB telepathy. "_Yeah,_" I belatedly shot back. "_Comes in handy sometimes. Like when you're facing people with actual guns instead of pewpew magic stun lasers." _There was no response to that, except for the _thump_ of something hitting the car I was leaning against.

I considered my options. I had one slightly cheesed-off supermage attempting to prove her point to me by blasting me with it. She knew exactly where I was, while I had no idea where she was firing from. Well, that wasn't technically true—knowing which car had been hit narrowed down her range of possible directions from a full circle to half of one. (Still not very helpful.) She'd promised not to death-from-above me, but I had no idea what other tricks she could pull out.

My own bag of tricks was rather limited at the moment; I had my standard loadout of duster, staff, pentacle amulet, and blasting rod, plus the piece of chalk I keep around for emergency thaumaturgy.

Thaumaturgy...thaumaturgy...

"_Lesson Two: Even grounded, mages can move _fast_. Don't stand in one place if you don't have your flanks covered_."

I wildly looked to my left as Nanoha's voice came through again. Then my right.

Nanoha waved to me from across the street. She'd once again summoned her frilly-skirt outfit, and was holding what was obviously Raising Heart. I say "what was obviously" because it looked very different from the last time I'd seen it—the tip had reconfigured itself from a sphere in a broken circle to a two-pronged configuration that looked a lot like the training staff she'd shown me earlier.

Oh, and it was pointed straight at me. _Shit._

To my credit, I _might_ have managed to either activate my shield bracelet or successfully dive for cover if I hadn't panicked and tried to do both at once. I ended up falling flat on my face instead, which was just as well, since a burst of pink light flew directly over my head.

That had me thinking I had lucked out just long enough for the next shot to hit me directly in the ass.

It didn't hurt _much, _especially through my duster; it felt more or less like someone had nailed me with a not-particularly-vicious fastball. Really, it bruised my dignity more than anything. And if there's one thing you _don't_ do, it's bruising a wizard's dignity.

I crawled behind another car, then, after thinking a moment, kept moving, staying on my hands and knees so that she wouldn't spot me. I couldn't put together a veil at a moment's notice like Molly could, so hiding wasn't really an option. I wasn't really fond of the idea of trying to go head-to-head with Nanoha, either.

"_Lesson Three: Line of sight only matters so much." _Nanoha's voice came again, this time accompanied by a burst of about a bajillion pink sparks that exploded out from somewhere to my right. The sparks spread through the urban wasteland, and to my dismay, the ones nearest me decided to start attaching themselves to me. It didn't seem to be an attack in itself, but combined with what Nanoha had just said...I focused my will into my shield bracelet, just in time for a couple of pink spheres of force to come arcing over the nearest car and slam into the protective dome it created. I frantically tried to brush off the little pink sparks—target markers, I guess?—with my free hand, but they resolutely stuck to my duster. So much for the obvious method.

I got another idea, and closed my eyes, stretching out with the magical sense any practitioner worth his salt has. I could feel the tiny pinpricks of light surrounding me, and, more importantly, the tendrils of power linking them back to Nanoha, guide-rails for the next magic fastball. Clever, yeah, but if my guess was right, easy enough to deal with. I waited for the next salvo to come in—they stung a bit more; she was probably going to keep raising the intensity until I surrendered. Heh, me. Surrendering. There's a funny thought. After a second or two passed without any more coming my way, I dug a piece of chalk out of the pocket of my duster and scrawled a quick, messy circle around myself, then visualized an impenetrable wall going up from it as I poured my will into it.

I opened my eyes.

The pink sparks had vanished, and the next couple of force spheres hurtled off into the sky, cheerfully ignoring my current location.

_Well, that worked_. I broke the circle, and Nanoha's voice immediately popped into my head. "_—ting locks before. Next lesson, I guess._" She no longer sounded quite so confident, which was a major victory in my book. But now that I had her off balance, I wasn't about to let her regain the advantage. I had an idea, and I needed a minute to pull it off. And for that, I needed a distraction.

There is a very specific kind of distraction that I have a great deal of skill at. And though a single bullet wouldn't necessarily ignite a gas tank, an eldritch blast of fire might just do the job.

I pulled out my blasting rod, picked a car which was far from me and sort-of-close to where I estimated Nanoha to be, and shouted "_Fuego!_" A lance of fire flew out and impacted the car, right about where the gas tank should have been...

And nothing happened. Oh, there was a great deal of charred, twisted metal where the fire blast had hit, but there was a distinct lack of the epic pyrotechnics I had been hoping for. _Hm. Maybe the gas tank is on the other side._ I tried another car. _"Fuego!_" No dice. _"Fuego! Fuego!"_ Nothing on the third or fourth tries, either.

"_Eh...Mr. Dresden_..." Nanoha's telepathic voice came through, sounding slightly apologetic. "_Cars here run on mana-electric converters. Not gasoline._"

Oh. Well. Better run, then.

* * *

><p>While I had no hope of getting away from Nanoha out in the open, I found that running into the nearest supermarket provided enough temporary cover for me to try my next Brilliant Idea.<p>

You see, there's a reason Nanoha didn't give me her name back when we first met. Names have power. Everything has its true Name, and if you have that Name, you can exert control over it, without needing any of the more physical props and focuses you'd normally need for thaumaturgy. Of course, a Name is more than just words—it's the precise way those words are pronounced and inflected when spoken, and as a result, the only way to get someone's true Name is to hear it from them, in person.

Nanoha had introduced herself fully later, but as 'Nanoha Takamachi'. I knew a thing or two about how Japanese names worked, and she'd sounded just the slightest bit awkward saying it in that order. My suspicions had been confirmed when I heard the intercom on the _Elesia_ calling for 'Captain Takamachi Nanoha'. So what she'd given me wasn't much better than if she'd just given me her first or last name.

That said, it didn't matter much, because outside of location spells, there wasn't much you could do with a human being's True Name that didn't go _deep_ into black-magic territory. I had no intention of turning myself into Sir Cackles von Babyeater over what was essentially a sparring match, and so The Name that was of interest to me right now was that of the presumably sentient, but definitely nonhuman being that had introduced itself to me as 'Raising Heart Exelion'.

To that end, I had found a cherry tomato in the produce section, run into the employees-only section in the back, and scrawled another quick chalk circle around myself. Then I stared really, really intently at the tomato, and, trying to replicate the robotic inflection of the words exactly the way I had heard them, said "_Raising Heart Exelion._ Shut down." I put my will into the words, and felt something _click_.

And then, out loud, I heard a shocked "Eh?!" from right around the corner from me. Shield bracelet and staff at the ready, I peeked around that corner. Nanoha was back in her T-shirt and sweatpants, and staring confusedly at the red orb in her hand. Wearing what I admit was a slightly self-satisfied smirk, I walked out, keeping the staff trained on her.

"Lesson One," I said, relishing the reversal. "Names. Have. Power." I hadn't quite worked out what Lesson Two was going to be, but for now—

She looked up at me, panic on her face, and shrieked, "What did you—you _killed_ her!"

I had just enough time to think "_oh, shit_" before she yelled something and the world went pink. Then it went _pain_. And then, finally, black.

* * *

><p>The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was white. The white resolved itself into a well-lit room full of beds and equipment and—oh. I was in the hospital. <em>No, the medical bay,<em> I reminded myself as the memories started coming back. Because...oh.

Nanoha was sitting next to me, alongside Molly and Mouse, and as she noticed I had woken up, her face went bright red with fury. Wait...that didn't really look like fury...

"Uh...Harry?" Molly asked tentatively. "Are you awake?"

"...Yeah. Yeah, I'm up." I sat up and turned to look at her. "Ugh. How long was I out?"

"About three hours, I think. Yeah, three hours," she said after a glance at the clock.

Nanoha spoke up. "Ah. Um. Sorry." Yep, that was definitely embarrassment on her face, mixed with a little worry.

I blinked at her. "Shouldn't I be saying that?"

"Ah, no! Well, maybe...but I might have overreacted a little bit. Raising Heart is fine, but, well, you see, she'd never hard-crashed in the middle of combat before, and, so...I panicked. Are you all right? I wasn't really...thinking very well when I hit you, and...so..."

I felt a little woozy, but mostly fine other than that—there wasn't any of the soreness I'd have expected from being hit like that. "I'm fine. I think I'm fine, anyway."

"You're fine," said someone from behind me. I turned to see a lab-coated, blue-haired man standing behind me. "Hey," he said, with a little wave. "Kemmen Mersic, ship's doctor. But yeah, you're all good. No sign of a concussion or anything." He nodded toward the foot of my bed; I followed his gaze to see my duster folded there. "That coat of yours is really something. Nothing but leather and outworld wand-waving, and it took nearly as much of the impact shock for you as a decent barrier jacket would've. Could've been a lot worse; I mean, she really blasted you across the room."

Nanoha went even redder at that, but I frowned. "Outworld wand-waving?"

"Yeah, you know, the ritual woo-woo stuff all of you outworlders use for magic. Don't know _how_ any of it actually works."

Before I could say anything, Nanoha cut in. "It works _quite _well, Dr. Mersic. And I'll remind you that everyone here besides you is an 'outworlder'."

"Sorry!" Mersic held up his hands. "Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone. Anyway, Mr., uh, Dresden, unless you're noticing any problems I didn't, you're free to go."

* * *

><p>"Sorry about him, too," Nanoha said, walking Molly and I back to our quarters. "The TSAB's <em>supposed<em> to be an interplanetary organization, but there are a few closed-minded people out there. More than a few, really."

"Jerks will be jerks," I said. "So...do you want to talk about what happened?"

She nodded, but instead of the apologetic tone she'd taken earlier, immediately launched into Professional Mode. "What you said to me, right before. 'Names have power.' I've heard it's a bad idea, on Earth, to give a wizard your name—that's why I introduced myself with an alias—but is that how you shut down Raising Heart?"

"Yeah. Someone's, or something's, true name, given in their own words...to someone who knows how to use it, it's one of the most powerful sympathetic connections you can get. There aren't many who _can_, of course, and most of the ones who can, well, aren't exactly human. Still, it's something to watch out for. Raising Heart introduced itself, uh, herself when you first gave her to me, and I used it to call to her and shut her down."

"Right, right." Nanoha nodded, looking a little worried but mostly interested. "Right before it happened, she started saying 'unauthorized access', like something was hacking into her. But that you can do that with just a _name_..." She shuddered. "It is a little...creepy."

"It is, yeah. Though again, you usually have to hear the Name direct from the person it belongs to, and you have to be listening carefully and remember it perfectly. And, well, don't worry, I'd never do anything like that to a human being."

"Hm." Nanoha went quiet for a moment, frowning. "You have to understand, Mr. Dresden. Intelligent Devices like Raising Heart...they're not human, not quite, but they're _intelligent_. They can think, consider, plan...whether they can _feel_ or not is something nobody's ever going to agree on, but many, many mages consider their Device to be a partner, not just a tool." She shook her head. "While no harm was done, and I understand that you didn't realize all this, it might be best to refrain from messing around with Intelligent Devices like that without permission, in the future."

"I...see." Hell's bells, I hadn't even thought about it that way. What would I think if someone had used a slip of a Name to take over Bob like that? Or Toot-toot? Or, hell, Mouse? "You have my word. I won't try anything like that again."

She nodded. "Right. Just so that's understood. Now..." She sighed. "You probably want to talk to me about the murder."

The murder in question—the entire reason I was here in the first place—had, in actuality, completely slipped my mind. Hurriedly, I dredged up the name Nanoha had given me from the depths of my memory. "Yes, actually. So. Callia Kinari. Who was she?" I asked as we passed out of earshot of a couple off-duty crew.

Nanoha frowned, looked over at Molly, then back to me. "Wait. Can she hear all of this?"

"I'm right here, you know."

I shook my head. "I'd say it's your call. Molly's hotheaded, but she's trustworthy and she mostly knows what she's doing. For the most part, anything you can say in front of her, you can say in front of me."

"For the most part?" If anything, Molly sounded even _more_ indignant.

"Later, kid."

"Hm. It doesn't really matter much at this point, anyway." Nanoha held out the red jewel I now knew as Raising Heart. I silently whispered an apology to it. (Her?) A holographic screen popped out from it, showing a picture of a bespectacled woman with slightly frizzy brown hair and ID information next to it. "Callia Kinari. Age 28. Occupation..." Nanoha paused for a moment, clearly gathering her strength. "Agent with Cranagan County Child Services."

"Oh. Oh, _shit_."

Nanoha nodded grimly. "Exactly." She swept the ID screen to the side with one hand, then brought up a picture of what had to be one of the most adorable kids I'd ever seen. About ten by my estimate, with long, dark-blonde hair, big eyes (one green, one red, I noticed), and that mischievous smile kids that age can't help but have. "I adopted my daughter Vivio four years ago, in the aftermath of...well, it's a long story, but basically, I was there for her when she really, really needed a mother. I was only nineteen at the time, but...the way things went, it wouldn't have gone well if I'd tried to get her set up with a foster family. Fate helped me take care of her; she'd already... " She trailed off. "But I'm dodging the point. About six months ago, several bits of footage from the incident that led to me adopting Vivio was leaked to the public. Footage that, out of context, did not speak well of my fitness as a parent."

"What kind of footage?"

Nanoha winced. "I'd rather not talk about it, lest you jump to the same conclusions the public did."

"Miss...Captain Takamachi, I can't help you without all the facts. Especially if they pertain to your guilt or innocence." And I wasn't fond of the idea of helping out a child abuser, regardless of whether or not she was guilty of the murder part.

She sighed. "Fine. But not without some context, first."

And with that, she told me everything. She told me that Vivio's parents weren't around because she didn't _have_ parents, that she was a clone. And not just any clone; oh no. She was a clone of Olivie Segbrecht, the last Belkan Saint King. She told me that Vivio had been created by a madman, for her genes held the key to controlling the most powerful warship in known dimensional space. She'd escaped and ended up in TSAB hands, and had almost immediately taken to Nanoha.

And then the madman had taken Vivio back. Tortured her, magically brainwashed her, forcibly bent a _six-year-old child_ to his will and used her as a battery for a weapon of mass destruction. And at the end of it, when he was on the edge of victory, Nanoha had boarded that weapon, and quite literally _blasted_ the brainwashing out of her.

And that was the recording that had gone out to the public; the one Nanoha showed me. Now granted, Vivio had started the battle in some kind of time-accelerated adult mode (with a body that made me _extremely _uncomfortable to look at, knowing a terrified six-year-old's mind was inside), but when the dust cleared, it was pretty obvious what happened: Nanoha had basically nuked the little girl she later adopted. Of course, when Nanoha showed me _her_ version of the recording, with sound fully restored, it was pretty obvious she hadn't had a choice. But without that context, patched together with a few videos of training sessions Nanoha had led that demonstrated what just _might _be some anger issues, and I could see why the public could get the wrong idea.

"I released the unedited video myself, but...it was too little, too late. The public had made up their minds already. Callia showed up at my apartment a week later." The words were rushing out of Nanoha now, like she was trying to get over talking about it as quickly as she could. "She wanted to talk to Vivio and I...separately." She forced a smile. "She was really friendly, you know? She said she didn't want to make any assumptions, just wanted to get the facts as best as she could. Vivio didn't understand; why would she? I'd, I'd never..." She closed her eyes. "She came a few more times over the next few weeks. Came with a smile, left with a smile. Except the last time.

"The last time she came, she said she was starting to get worried. That she'd done nothing but report back that there was no evidence of neglect, or, or a-abuse, but th-they'd, her superiors had pressed her. Told her to keep looking. She said she was going to do some looking around, f-find out who exactly had called for the investigation." Nanoha took a deep breath. "The next day, I found an envelope in my inbox at work. Just a note in Hayate's, one of my friend's handwriting, saying 'Social worker m-murdered. They're going to arrest you. Vivio's safe with the Church. Don't go home. Get out while you can.' It was in Japanese, translation-blocked, we almost _never_ write in Japanese any more. And an identicloak—high-powered illusion, v-veil, can fool any civilian scanner, totally illegal, it was in there too, two credit cards—one TSAB, one from Earth!—and a single ticket on a high-power teleporter out to a planet I'd never heard of. Expensive, twenty, thirty times what a spaceship ticket would cost."

"So you ran?" I asked. It wasn't supposed to be hostile, just the investigator in me trying to get the facts out. Still, it probably wasn't the best comment, in retrospect. And by 'in retrospect', I mean 'I realized it half a second after it was out of my mouth.'

"_I HAD NO CHOICE!_" she screamed at me, tears streaming from her eyes. "My face was on the news half an hour later! And—and Hayate—do you know what it _takes_ to get your hands on an identicloak?! Something like that—Hayate's so much part of the system—if she said I had to run, I'm damn well going to run!"

"Easy! Easy, I'm not—I'm not trying to accuse you," I said. We'd drawn the attention of a couple of nearby crew; I wondered how much of this they'd already heard. Probably very little.

Nanoha didn't seem to hear me, though her shouts quieted to sobs. "And—and Vivio. There was one ticket, and Hayate, damn her, Hayate knew Vivio, picking her up, taking her on the run with me, she knew she'd slow me down, that I'd never make it out. One ticket, one identicloak, it was her _telling_ me, 'Nanoha, do the smart thing, not the mother thing. Not the Nanoha thing.' And she w-was right. She _is_ safe with the Saint Church. Safer than she'd be with me, safer than anywhere in the whole damned universe." Nanoha stopped for a moment, and took another deep breath. "I saw the police arriving at the teleport just before it went out. I already had the cloak on. I bounced from world to world for a few days, finally made it back to Earth, teleported myself a few times to throw off the trail. Battery on the cloak ran out pretty soon after that, and, well, I was in Chicago."

"And you just looked up "Wizards" in the phone book?"

She was calm enough to manage a little chuckle. "I knew there wasn't much help I could get from mundane sources. So I took a wild shot; my dad had always sort of hinted that there's a lot more magic on Earth than the TSAB thinks there is, and so I asked a few questions in some promising, and, uh, not-so-promising places, and I ended up in a little tavern called, uh, McAnally's, I think. Most amazing beer I've ever tasted, and I don't _like_ beer. And I asked the bartender there if he knew someone who could hide me, magically, and, well, he didn't say anything, he just gave me your card." She frowned. "...Wait, you're not actually in the phone book, are you?"

"Well, uh..."

"Yep!" Molly cut in. "Under 'Wizard' and everything."

"Heh. Haha." Nanoha actually laughed for a second. "Heh, that would have been much easier. But...yeah. That's why I'm here, and...and..." Her smile faded.

"And Vivio isn't?" Molly supplied.

"Yes. But. I'm going to get her back." Her face hardened. "_We're_ going to get her back, and then we're going to figure who did this, and why. Me, Fate, and whoever else I can get to help me. Even you two, if you're willing. Are you willing?"

"Hell yes!" Molly's response was disconcertingly fast.

"Hang on a second, Molly," I said. "You're still my apprentice. You don't _breathe_ without my say-so, let alone enter into agreements with strange alien women." She glared at me, but I shrugged it off and looked Nanoha straight in the eye (and stars and stones, it was great to be able to do that again). "I don't work for free, you know."

"Then what's your fee for this kind of thing?" Nanoha said, faux-suspiciously.

"Hm..." I shrugged. "We can work it out after the job's done. We're in."

* * *

><p><em>AN: I actually completed this a month ago and then completely forgot to upload it to FFN. Derp. Questions? Comments? Nerdrage? (If you've got a question, please send it in a PM or **signed** review; I can't reply to an anonymous review!)_


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